The Road From Hell
by sephjnr
Summary: Lucy's left love behind, and gone to face her future. But it's not what she thinks it'll be, and she needs help to turn things around, as do several of the people she's familiar with. Strong language & violence. The story is now complete!
1. Seamless Link

**DISCLAIMER: **I do not own any of the characters in this fanfiction.

I've decided to pad the story out a little through the earlier chapters, mainly thanks to the grossly disproportionate amount of content which may be a huge turn-off for many readers that like some more meat.

The story starts with Lucy facing the guards on the bridge, after reuniting her true self with Kohta, ready to face the music for the death she's freely rained on humanity. She finds out that what she believes to be the answer is anything but, and with some unexpected help she has to find peace another way, whilst the peace of her benefactors has to take a step back.

* * *

******CHAPTER ONE**

She stood on the bridge, alone against more soldiers hired to kill her no matter the cost. She was ready for them. Lucy took her chance to apologise to Kohta for slaughtering his family before his eyes, but he would not forgive her for that sin yet- instead pledging that it would break his heart forever should she slay again. She'd have to break the habit of a lifetime in order to win his love, even if it meant her doom. Still, that was enough for Lucy- his hapiness, no matter how brief, was enough giving it all up for. She'd fought several nameless, faceless hordes in her solitary road towards redemption, and almost had it stolen from her by a skillful demon in a push-chair, and she'd endured it all to cry her tears for him. And that was enough for her- now it was time for the hunters to get their prize, but they'd have to work for it._  
"Not long now, Kaede"_, she reasoned. _"One last rush of blood and it's done."  
_  
"READY!!!" a senior solider yelled to his squadron.  
"... when you are", her final say on the subject was. About 30 of the Corporation's finest aimed their machine guns in perfect synchronisation. Crossing 2 of her vectors to her chest, she sent the other pair hurling up and forward whilst they opened fire. She'd managed to cut 4 of them at once before being hurled backwards with an almighty crunch, with her one remaining horn torn from her head with authority. Again, like at the shrine, she blacked out upon her head impacting onto the road. After a few moments of wondering whether she had attained the sweet zenith of a satisfied death, she opened her eyes before the sky. _"Denied."_

Checking her head she could feel that the other horn was missing, more blood in its place. Climbing uneasily to her feet, she faced the insult that was a brief burst of fire, and roared out "IS THAT THE BEST YOU CAN DO?!? That asshole with the missing arm put up more of a goddamn fight than any of you! I'm not finished yet, you worthless creatures- you want me? TAKE ME!".

Something went wrong. They weren't firing anymore, and she couldn't think why. In a blind fit of range she yelled obscenities at the guards who were marching forward slowly. One man approached and, with a yell of "TAKE ME OR I WILL TAKE YOU WITH ME!", she flung a vector to disembowel him… and it passed harmlessly through. Another vector, another complete miss. A third, and again the rookie solider was still unarmed. But the strangest thing was that he paid no attention to Lucy's face.

_"What the hell?"_ was all she could think of, but only for a minute. The solider that should be in 2 pieces bent forward onto his knees, cocking his head quizzically to the side, then got back up and started walking back with an unnatural coolness. She looked at him as if he was an idiot for a moment. And then it hit her. The soldiers backed off out of formation, and she felt her forehead, finding several pea-sized dints that weren't there before. _"Denied...?"_  
She then looked at her feet to confirm what she thought. And she saw a corpse looking remarkably like herself, staring blankly right back at her with blood streaming from her pale face onto the road, eyes white as skin.

"They got me. They actually got me." Lucy's ghost mumbled while the soliders slowly returned to their vans on the other end of the broken bridge. All she could make out from them was a request to drive around and recover the body, and some sign shown that it had been denied. The soldier that checked her looked back, removing his mask. She could make out a slight sense of sadness in his face- was this kill too easy or too hard? All she could do was look back and forth between the body and the killer, who took a sip from a hip-flask, paid a half-serious salute out of respect and departed in the last transport, with the words "A worthy opponent" hanging in the air, echoing in her ears.

She was alone in the moonlight. The queen was dead.

She just didn't know what to do. For the first time since that fateful day at school when she first rended flesh, she was genuinely stumped. They'd won, were refused their prize and all she could do was just stand there on a broken bridge in the middle of the night looking into her own cold, dead eyes. She couldn't cry, what was the point? She'd expected to lose, and deliberately played to that. She couldn't smile either because even though she'd made peace with Kohta her horrid memories were still there, still right at the front of her wretched soul. She needed the words "I forgive you" more than anything, and they weren't in the offing. "I forgive you", definitely, "I love you", possibly, anything but "A worthy opponent" right now.

"A worthy opponent indeed" A voice from behind called out.  
"Huh?" Lucy replied.  
"It doesn't turn out like you expected, does it Lucy? You grab hold of what you have left, expect one final wave of pain and then nothing at all, like it would all wash away with the blood."  
She turned behind her, and her face went whiter than the body in front of her.

Kurama returned a half-smile. "Hello, Lucy."


	2. Sinking In

**Disclaimer:** This fanfic is in no way indicative of there being a second season of Elfen Lied on the way. Sadly.

Lucy has passed into the next ethereal plane, and in real terms it's in the exact same bloody spot the last one finished. Which isn't good news for her state of mind. And what's more she's found one of the small handful of people she definitely wouldn't ask to spend the rest of eternity with- Kurama.

* * *

**CHAPTER TWO**

Dr. Kensuke Kurama, 1975-2005, was the last person Lucy wanted to see right now. He hadn't been dead much longer than her, but he'd sounded too cool about the whole thing. Less than 10 minutes earlier he had turned to dust in an explosion that could be heard miles away, now he was standing there in his nice, crisp business suit as if the situation was unremarkable, like it was just a guy and a girl on a bridge in the moonlight. With her corpse on the floor and a hole in the middle of the bridge they were standing on, as-you-do.

"It gets easy after a few minutes" Kurama calmly proclaimed.  
"… Did you have to stare at your own cadaver as well?" Lucy returned, half in disbelief and half in anger. "or just the chunks that floated off into the bay?"  
"Ever defiant. All I saw was the daughter I'd abandoned telling me that it was OK." Kurama retorted.  
"I couldn't stop saying sorry, not even after the explosion. Sorry for denying her a life free from sin."  
"Your daughter?" Lucy asked, still unsure of what he meant even after she'd mutilated Nana in the graveyard. "I thought Nana…"  
"Father?" a voice called from behind them. "Who are you talking to?"

Lucy's eyes widened as a familiar – and unwelcome – chair came spinning towards them. Mariko and Lucy met again, not one quarter of an hour after they fought up in the hills. All thoughts of Kohta, love and happiness were scrapped and the anger he made Lucy swear to repel returned with a fiery vengeance. In an instant she pictured herself hurtling towards the girl that nearly killed her, vectors flailing like scissors ready to turn that little upstart into next Sunday's meat market special offer. The next instant she knew that was pointless. She was just as dead as Lucy, and no amount of rage would make a difference. All six fists of hers clenched hard, and she reasoned _"What the hell", _flying at Mariko. Kurama deftly grabbed the handles behind her chair and, with dexterity befitting a spanish Matador, moved Mariko out of the way of the red blur. Lucy dashed past and barely braked her furious charge before hitting the hole, not wanting to brave the waters in her current state. After her second humiliation in moments, she elected to show some pissed-off stoicism instead.

Mariko saw the girl that had stood up to her well desperately trying to ease her own rage, and chuckled. "You still angry I beat you up?" the little brat started.  
"Don't hold onto it. Father says we're here for a long time, so you may as well let it out. There's no shame in accepting you lost."  
"THE HELL YOU KNOW! You shouldn't even be able to count to six yet!" Lucy screeched…. regretting it immediately.  
"That was retarded" she then said, head in hands. What little grasp and reason she had of this new, harsh non-existence she beheld bled away with tears. It was too much to take in. She had bullets in her brain and the two people in front of her amounted to little more than the salt in the bay air. She turned to run from the impossibility of it all, but everywhere she turned to look, she saw things that frightened her, not just bodies. It was all just… too… much.

"Don't fight it, Lucy."  
"It's not going to go away."  
"You're dead."  
"We're all dead."  
"It makes no difference."  
"You killed us."  
"We killed you."  
"We hate you."  
"Nobody loves you."  
"He hates you."  
Hurtful phrase after hurtful phrase from demons that both existed and did not blinded her mind along with her blinded eyes. The voices sped up and hammered the same refrain into her- let it go. Let. It. Go. Falling to her knees, her head shot skyward… and the loudest possible silence pierced the sky. Lucy's throat contorted into an infernal yell but no sound would come out, but then her entire soul vomited, turning inside out with a cry that could have come from hell itself. Kamura could not take pleasure from this, bowing his head. He beheld one source of unimaginable torment that almost rivalled his own.

Hours ago Mariko would have smiled, but not now. She saw pain in its truest form for the very first time, and understood.  
"Daddy… she's not angry at me, is she?" She asked, worried that she'd spoken out of turn once too often.  
"No, Mariko. She's in pain for a whole different reason." He replied. "Love, not hate."  
Lucy went hoarse, and slumped to the concrete, as if every part of her was spent in that one exclamation of grief. That wasn't the case, as Lucy felt exactly the same as she had moments ago, and she was just lying there for its own sake.  
"… Sorry." Mariko blurted, trying to stick a band-aid on an amputation.

"Fuck, I could use some soumen right now." Lucy bleated. That was all she could say.   
"Do you need a minute?" Kurama asked.  
"Yeah." She said. She was feeling the truest essence of defeat. Her gaze turned towards Mariko again for a brief moment, and all she could mouth was 'why did I let him go?', not expecting an answer.


	3. Reassurance?

**Disclaimer:** The fact that Mariko has 24 vectors does not mean she could play a Metal instrumental by herself. That's just cocky.

It's all sinking in.

* * *

**CHAPTER THREE**

"What about Nana?" Kurama asked, and Mariko frowned.  
"I sent her to live with Kohta" Lucy said in a half-whisper, curled up on the floor. "I had to stop one of your staff from killing her, and she showed no anger to me. She'll have the life I wanted to live. She'll be safe."   
"I'd love to believe that. Really." He said, knowing that the truth was far less kind. "Kakuzawa still wants her dead just to spite me. My death won't change that. He could make up anything from framing her for your murders to saying she organised a terrorist attack on the bridge, probably both."  
Mariko, wanting in on this, asked "... was she your friend, Lucy?"  
"Not really. We had a really big fight a few weeks ago, and she wasnt very easy around me for a long time since."  
"I don't want to hear this", Kurama interjected, praying she'd change the subject.  
"Why not?" Mariko pressed.  
"I ripped her arms and legs off."  
Mariko winced, her disbelief of Lucy's hype evaporating. "Damn, sorry for mocking your reputation."  
"I'm not proud of it, not anymore." Lucy said, turning to Kurama-  
"… for what it's worth, I'm sorry you had to see me tear her apart. We were fighting, and I took an opportunity", Lucy said. She knew that it was a less one-sided affair back in the graveyard, more like a boxing match between two untested but evenly-fancied fighters. Perhaps she couldn't convince Kurama that it wasn't a horrific massacre, but it would be better to make Nana look good. "She's damn tough, that girl. First person I saw that had no fear in her eyes, not for a second."  
"All she feared was failure", Kurama retorted. "Just like everybody else."

Lucy turned her head in despair for a second. At the complete opposite situation she was in minutes prior, she felt the urge to do something, but without any plausible means to do it. Then a brainwave hit, and she picked herself up from the floor. "Kohta. Apart from Nana he saw everything. That should jam up the 'terrorist' thing unless your boss wants to blow his entire rhetoric away by suggesting that he's an accomplice. Same goes for his cousin as well, they're tighter than ever now." Kurama liked the sound of that.  
"What do you mean?" Mariko chirped, confused.   
"Well, it's not as if he's willing to publicly entertain the idea that humans and Diclonii can exist in peace, is it?" Lucy affirmed.  
"…no, what does 'rhetoric' mean?"  
"Oh!" Lucy was caught off her guard by that, mildly amused. "It means 'belief spoken to influence'." Mariko dwelled on it for a second.  
"… like 'lying', right?"  
That made Lucy smile. "Often, but not always", she replied. Mariko was bright, but still very young. Kurama could see that she was trying first to understand the big word Lucy said and then fit it around what she meant, so for her sake he skipped a few steps ahead.  
"He's got no reason to make Kohta look bad, I agree, but it'll be far easier for him to send a team over to the house and raze it to the ground, no fuss."  
"But they don't know where Nana lives yet, do they, Daddy?" Mariko chirped.  
"No, they don't. And I hope they never find out."

The smile flew from Lucy's face like the wind she couldn't feel anymore. "I hate your logic. It's too perfect… I hate this. All the time in the world to do anything I could possibly want, and no time at all what I need to do."   
"Need?" Mariko enquired. "You don't need to do anything. You're…"  
Kurama placed a well-timed hand over her mouth. "Her soul needs more than it looks."   
"You're right" Lucy replied. "But in a way she's right as well. I want Kohta just as badly now as I did before. I'd rather just not have him here because of my screw-ups. And you don't want Nana here for the same reason."  
Mariko looked like she was sharpening her vectors like steak knives. Kurama caught that look, and Mariko softened. She knew her father loved her, but she still didn't understand why he loved _her_ at all. The only other thing Mariko knew what to ask was "Anyway, while we're on the subject… what is the damn time?"

Kurama looked at his watch. "I think it's been half-past-8 for an hour now. Way past your bed time, young lady."  
"I hope you're referring to Mariko! I can handle late nights under the stars." Lucy interjected.  
"That's not fair, she's not even setting a standard worth rebelling against!" Mariko protested. They all laughed. They needed it.  
"Now you say that Lucy, you look like you haven't slept in an age. But there's nowhere to sleep here anyway, I don't think. Except…" He turned to face the chair, but Mariko was well away.

Lucy looked down at the one fighter that gave her a challenge above everything else, dozing away like Nana in her chair. How the hell can anyone hate her? And how could she hate anyone at all, looking like that?   
"Do ghosts dream, Kurama?" Lucy asked.  
"I really don't know" he replied. "If they did, would they really want to wake up?"  
"One way to find out" Lucy said, taking a numb seat near one of the intact rails, facing away from the mouth of the bay. Kurama thought about taking a seat near her, but he realised that this may be too soon for her to soften to him. Instead, he laid down next to Mariko's chair, leaning his head on her knee. Out of instinct, she placed her hand on it.  
Lucy lazily looked on, still curious- the temple fight instilled a desire to know exactly what Mariko would be capable of against Kakuzawa's entire millitary clout, and which outcome would screw the world up the worst. Anger had given its way grudgingly to respect, and with that she shut her eyes to attempt a dream.

_"Lucy?"  
"Yes?"  
"Your friend in the warehouse, 3 years ago. What was her name?"  
"… Aiko."_


	4. No, you cannot have!

**DISCLAIMER: **All characters are owned by their respective owners, and I don't have any yet. Any resemblance between people mentioned here and those in real life is purely coincidental.

Whilst Lucy & company attempt to rationalise their immediate demises and futures through the medium of a good night's sleep, let's change focus for just a minute…

* * *

**CHAPTER FOUR**

**"… _beat the Hamfighters 6-5 in 11th inning overtime with a solo home run from gaijin pitcher Tom Davey. And on a more embarrassing note, A local defence force in Kamakura bay was behind a badly executed military exercise this evening, destroying a large part of the major service bridge after using faulty explosives. A spokesperson authorised a report to the press stating that timer faults had lead to the premature explosion of assault-grade dynamite, with a total of 26 military casualties, none civilian…"_**

The large throng of tourists, locals and revellers gathered around a solo television set in the middle of town. Even at 11:30 Kamakura had its share of nightlife, mostly good-natured. But to either a drunken student or a concerned fisherman an explosion is an explosion, whether it took the life of a hundred greenhorns or a single mad scientist.

**"_Sources estimate that recovery of the dead will begin sometime in the morning, and pending either an inquest or a hearing repairs to the bridge will begin sometime in the next 48 hours. Traffic updates will commence at 06:30 tomorrow and will follow every 15 minutes. For KAMA-1, this is Chiaki Yamakawa."_**

Murmurs along the crowd showed little more than the obvious tension of a ruined night out, and people started to look at eachother and their ruined _beersteineren_. When out of the blue a one-armed drunk man in sunglasses and a pirate's hat yelled "Ayy ayy ayy, it's still Saturday night, right?" before pratfalling straight onto his face, which did his orbital bone no favours but was wonderfully effective in banishing all thoughts of death and negligence from the revellers. As the drunkard got to his feet, most of the gawkers around the TV had dispersed, those with conquests achieved to find a half-decent hotel, those without to have a better shot at one of the few clubs in the area that didn't have too many people that cared not whether they would be riding a Swedish blonde or an ambulance. And as the drunken pirate fell back onto the floor, he tried to make his mind up which of the three categories applied to him.

As Bando had concisely put it, it was still Saturday. At least for the next half-an-hour.

And in half an hour the man who could pass quite well as the lead villain in a varsity production of Peter Pan would either be dead or fired. He quite clearly couldn't give a shit either way. Getting back onto the one foot that Lucy had left intact, the man who – right now – could kill little more than a wedding reception hobbled in a vain search for any empties with the slightest sliver of lager. What he did find was a fun-house mirror parked up right next to an expensive fashion store, and for a fleeting moment he could do little other than admire the erudite, sexy young beast staring _riiiiight_ back at him.

But that wasn't a fun-house mirror outside, it was a dress mirror inside. And upon recognising this Bando realised how much of a garlic-fried turd he looked- standing there with a stupid hat, one arm, a broken ankle and a giant mulitcoloured name-badge bearing the legend 'R.Jimladd'. He shed a small tear, and wondered what to do with the rest of his career now that any chance of salvaging his job would disappear with that very public display of inebriation. It took four seconds-  
"The cause of, and solution to all of my problems. Lucy."  
He then wandered off in the direction of the bay itself for the only answer he was interested in. The answer that over three hours previous had passed up the opportunity to silence him forever. Searching his pockets for the one gun he still had left, he pulled out the remenants of an inflatable parrot, an empty packet of Bombay mix and a stolen Colt Python. He checked the gun for ammunition- one round. _"That's all I need."_

"Dude, where'ya goin? You're off your face", a youngster challenged him.  
"I'M GONNA KILL THAT hic FUCKIN' BITCH ONCE AND FOR ALL" Bando yelled at him.  
"…. Whut, she puked in your VCR as well?" he replied. Bando laughed all the way down the hill, gripping buildings like he was falling over a cliff.

------------------

Lucy's question as to whether or not ghosts could sleep would get a debatable response- trying to push back thoughts of Aiko's death (and the subsequent pledge she took towards genocide) in order to drift off, Lucy spent most of the evening with a chessboard, a notepad and a TV monitor trying to replay every single combination of how her grand reunion with Kohta could have gone, looking for the one that would have stopped her from her inevitable march towards the firing squad. Opening her eyes would have conceded defeat, yet sleep wouldn't come at all if she couldn't find it. Looking between the same images of Kohta's distraught face and the notepad containing numerous variations of the theme 'It is in my nature to slaughter people', Lucy made an obvious (but pointless) pledge that if she were to meet Kohta again - on any side of the ether - not to keep on dwelling on her inner-asswipe. The pictures on the set started getting snow all over them, as if some sort of noise was interefering with it. The noise grew from a static bunch of white noise to some sort of tune… a very bad one.

_"One way… or another… I'm gonna find you… I'm gonna getchagetchagetchagetcha.."_

The noise won. Lucy opened her eyes and almost vomited on sight. Why him? IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT WAS HOLY, WHY HIM?

Lucy beheld the proudest, most boastful human being she had ever come across staggering towards her remains in the antithesis of good melody, sunglasses precariously lodged on his nose. And to think she almost had a measure of respect for his tenacity. "I wouldn't even have killed you out of pity" she said under her breath, not wanting to wake either Kurama or Mariko on the off-chance they'd made it to heaven in their dreams. And then she remembered exactly what was he was in for in moments, and the tone of disgust vanished. She mouthed the words "Turn away now, don't see me like this..."

_"one day.. maybe next week… I'm gonna s.."_

He found her.

His sunglasses fell off.

All Lucy could do was stand there and look into the unlikeliest face of pure horror she'd find all night. Now someone else was cheated out of hard work, and she had nothing to say. The most obvious s-word wouldn't have meant a thing if they'd have apologetically come from her dying lips on the floor. So the next s-word had to do, and a fat lot of good that did.

* * *

Zut alors, a footnote! A longer chapter for a change, and hopefully one that didn't meander too far into the realms off OC-hood. Hope you like it! 


	5. An unsure prospect

**Disclaimer:** Up until now there has been a somewhat restricted sense of seriousness about this story. This will be rectified at the next opportunity.

Bando's taken his latest defeat at Lucy's hands rather poorly. So imagine his horror when the only chance of victory he's likely to get won't happen at all…

* * *

**CHAPTER FIVE**

"… Shit" Lucy and Bando said in canon, the drunken solider not hearing her version. She was in exactly the same position as about two hours before, still facing the moon with her eyes white as her skin. Her head wounds bled little but the look on her face showed that the money-maker bullets were anticipated, like she stared the headlight bearing down on her face with a grim determination to not turn away under any circumstance. Her inebriated hunter discarded his comedy hat for the sake of it, and closed his eyes- Lucy's spectre gave him a sympathetic look, knowing it would be ignored. She couldn't tell if this was humility or humiliation on display from the one person who she was sure had experienced neither in his life. To Bando, this was akin to Rocky Balboa climbing the mountains for weeks on end, only to idly watch TV one day and see Ivan Drago catch one fist too many in a rigged warmup match- the legendary fight upon which two similar but opposing ideologies clashed was over before they'd touched gloves.  
"No... it ain't fair... not on me, not on you. What a goddamn waste." Bando declared next. He went to raise his arm as if to pull it into a salute, but he started to gag.

Bando staggered backward as if he'd collected himself for a second, and then he dashed over to the side of the bridge, his sympathy vote collecting itself out of his stomach and into the water. To her ghost, _that_ was more of the expected response from a drunk man stumbling across a dead body. Slumping by the barricade, he muttered "They cheated. They had to. No way they could do her, all by themselves." He reached for the Colt he'd swiped and eased its hammer forward, the great beast now redundant. Lucy turned to leave the drunken man to do his own post-mortem of the situation, and possibly to return to her own mental wasteland. And then she found out that the audience for _Bando Goes To Pieces_ was growing.

"Been awake long?" She asked Kurama, who was sat there as if he'd been awake through the whole thing with little discomfort.   
"Through the whole thing, bad _Blondie_ cover included. He's got a right to be upset"  
"What, just because he got cheated out of putting me out of my misery? In theory?" she snapped back  
"No" Mariko said, yawning. "Because in the morning he's in trouble. Daddy said he broke out of hospital a few days ago."  
"Yes." Kurama agreed. "He was supposed to donate his testicles to our research into how the vector virus is spread, but after getting his eye transplants and prosthetics sorted he assaulted the doctor and broke out. I gave him some replacements provided he covered me down to the bridge yesterday."  
"Trouble just about covers it…." Lucy postulated. "It's a shame in a way, he's a tenacious bastard. You can spot his sportsman's instinct a mile off."

Bando crawled over to the body, as if he were going to look her dead in her eyes and declare something that he was certain she wouldn't hear, mainly because it would make both of them utterly, utterly sick. Wiping his mouth with one hand and closing her eyelids with the other, he stood over Lucy's face preparing to make his grand speech, and something came to his attention that made him less certain.

"I don't know what I'm going to do now." Lucy continued. "I got what I wanted last night, the chance to apologise to the man I love. What do you two want?"  
Mariko spoke up next. "I… want to find Mommy." Kurama's eyes lit with fear, and then he turned away.  
"I… don't know if I'm ready for that. I was very bad to her when I needed to be a good man. Mariko, you're not ready to hear this. I need to be brave for this, and I'm not."  
That got Lucy's attention. "Is it something I did?"  
"No. Not even you would have done this to a loving human being. Could you do me a favour?" He asked. "I need you to follow Mariko to the cemetery we last met. My wife Hiromi was buried there." Lucy thought for a second, and then nodded, turning behind for an instant to collect her thoughts. Kurama then turned towards Mariko, tears filling his eyes as he started to speak.

"Mariko, I want you to find a place near the woods with a load of big stones there. Mommy should be sleeping there, you wake her up and tell her I sent you, ok? She's at the grave marked _Hiromi Kurama._"  
"Yes, Daddy. Will she know who I am?"  
"I think so. Don't worry about me, I've gotta find out if N…someone else is doing alright. Then I'll come and find you, and I'll be there with you and mommy before you can say…."  
"He's walking away with my body."  
"He's walking away with… eh?"

Bando was staggering away from the scene, body-over-shoulder and muttering something in a fever. Lucy stood there, incredulous at what he was doing. "THAT PRICK IS WALKING AWAY WITH MY BODY!!" Lucy yelled, hands-on-head. That was the absolute limit of absurdity she was able to endure. She followed him red as a beetroot, flailing vectors desperate to cut him to pieces or at least make him stop. He did stop- tripping over his own feet and sending Lucy rear-first onto the tarmac. The ghost version was lost to several hundred obscenities not fit for a 5-year-old's ears, and the promise to Kohta would have been broken an equal amount of times over if she had a say in it. Unperturbed, Bando climbed to his feet and hauled Lucy up again, repeating the near-inhuman feat of carrying dead weight in a wobbly march into the distance, followed by a fuming _doppelganger_ of his charge. Kurama and daughter watched in equal disbelief as the three of them became a blur on the other side of the bridge.  
"For a second, it looks like he's playing a pipe, like in Hamelin." Kurama spoke up.  
"A least the book you had didn't mention the piper having six fists pulling his tongue back through his... yuck." Mariko replied.  
Kurama let out a surprised laugh. The odd visage faded away into nothingness, and they were alone late in the night.

Kurama, losing out on the only guarantee he had of avoiding his departed wife, pointed up into the hills. "You see those trees up there?" Mariko nodded. "Mommy's just over there. I'm going to take you on a little trip.."  
"Daddy, if you can't see Mommy right now, I don't mind. You looked sad when you mentioned her. I'm a big girl, I can find it myself." Kurama almost smiled at this, partly in the selfish belief that his own personal destiny was delayed, partly because he knew Mariko was still making the effort to grow up by herself after all this. Maybe death wasn't that much of a handicap after all, especially knowing that she'd suffered worse in the facility.

"It's called Cherry Blossom Cemetary. Just over…." He pointed a small speck out. "there."   
"Who are you looking for, daddy? _That girl?_" Mariko got the guess right on the nose.  
"Just… to find out if she's OK. She's trying to grow up as well, and she's not as smart as you." Kurama's guilty conscience betrayed. "But I don't know where she is."  
"So is this goodbye? Again?" she asked. _"Five years without him and he's willing to give me up again? especially for that girl? If he wasn't my Daddy I'd take Lucy's approach with the Piper!"_  
"No, Mariko. I know where to find you, right?"  
"Yeah, daddy. But what if Mommy's not there? What if she's off somewhere, looking for us? What if she's out there looking for me and you and she's all alone?", Mariko panicked.  
Kurama looked down- that was a very good question. "Then… it's just you and me."  
Mariko understood. "Well… I better get going."

Turning her chair away from the hole in the bridge, she wheeled away a short distance with her beloved father watching, on her way to find someone else that loved her. And then Mariko Kurama stopped the chair.**_  
"Did... Nana ever hurt anybody, even playing?"  
"No, she never did."  
"…. That's good to hear, Daddy."_**  
Mariko continued to wheel her way towards an uncertain meeting. So started the Sunday nobody on that bridge would forget._  
_

* * *

That ended up pretty long for what I had in mind, but now I've got a direction for the story. I'd started this out mainly as a Lucy-centred fic but there's plenty of things for every Elfen Lied character to do when they're dead, so it would seem. A large amount of time will be spent alternating between the three members of our trio and their continuing searches for redemption, security and explanations for bodysnatching, and Part Six should be on the way next weekend.  



	6. Forwards and backwards

**Disclaimer: **A Jaffa Cake is most certainly a cake, not a biscuit.

Whilst Lucy is left hopping around in anger after a drunken corpse-jacking by Bando, Kurama admits that he is (understandably) afraid of nothing more than having to see his wife again.

* * *

**CHAPTER SIX**

Kurama began his slow walk away from the bridge, on a path that led to the latest in his long line of problems- seeing Hiromi again. Anyone else would give everything to see their beloved again at the end of the tunnel, but he'd pretty much made the biggest mistake for his immortal soul to make, to tell his own daughter that he was too ashamed of reaching out for the woman he loved more than anyone else.

"_You're a coward, Kensuke."_ He said to himself, trying to pick a direction to run in shame from Mariko. _"You've murdered scores of babies, sealed off your daughter forever and fallen in love with a project at work, and you sold your soul to that bastard over again, without so much as a question as to why."_ The old haunts still jabbed at his brain, even stronger than before, but now with all the time in the world to expand to even darker extremes- images of Baby Mariko, Hiromi, Mariko as he'd just seen her and Kakuzawa playing on his mind in an endless loop of sneering, disgust and disappointment. Stepping away from his one chance at salvation wasn't going to help.

Glancing over his shoulder, he saw Mariko begin an unlikely ascent up a hill in the direction of the graveyard. He could see her go a little forward, then slide back. Forward, then back. Forward, then back. Forward a little more, back a little less. _"See that? She's never giving up, not even now"_, he thought. Within minutes, she was out of sight. After turning his back, he made a careful leap across the hole where he and Mariko had left the mortal coil, and sternly walked towards the fresher batch of dead soldiers when he heard a scream, a crash and some blue language in the distance.

_"Probably Lucy"_, he reasoned.  
"Dad… I could do with a hand!"

Bang went that theory. He spun around to find Mariko collapsed at the bottom of the hill underneath her chair. Kurama didn't waste another instant. Running back across the blown bridge, he hopped onto the guard rail where the hole started, making a nervous leap back to the middle and dashing across more dead bodies towards her.  
"_That's more goddamn like it K, be a man."_ His mind had left him off for a moment.

"Mariko! Are you hurt?"  
"Are you a doctor? My pride just died on its butt."  
Kurama almost smiled at that. "Don't be so silly, I saw you. You were doing well."  
"But it's too much hard work, Daddy. My arms can't handle it."  
"What about your vectors?"  
"That's cheating, Daddy. Can you push me up?"  
"… alright, Mariko", he reluctantly replied.  
Grabbing the chair, they made a slow climb up towards the top, occasionally glancing to see if Lucy and Bando were still playing Benny Hill nearby. They found nothing, and to be frank they were glad of it. The small hours of Sunday were silent and soothing in places, and loud but jubilant in others- not yards away from the top of the hill were the local 'attractions' that thankfully weren't emptying out just yet. On finishing their journey, Mariko asked to be turned around to face the sea.

"I've never seen night before, Daddy. It's beautiful. I've only known a dark room, this is different. Look, Daddy, look at the sky! It's so bright, what are all those things?"  
"Stars, Mariko. Like little suns, far far away."  
"They're sweet, Daddy."  
"You should have seen the sun setting. I was out here on my own a few days ago watching it, just by myself. it's very calming."  
Mariko started crying. "Is there something wrong?" Kurama asked.  
"When the sun was going down I was… " she bowed her head. She couldn't even finish the sentence "trying to kill… I'm so sorry, Daddy."

Kurama was at a loss for one second, but then he remembered it himself. Nana. One-legged, falling from the bridge. Hours ago, not days, not weeks, hours. He'd already seen her throttling Nana up at the temple, so this was a fair surprise to see remorse where she was concerned. And that put his neuroses in check for a while. Now was the time he had to be stern with his offspring. _"Force her hand."_

"Mariko, stop that right now. You don't have to say sorry to me for that. Now be honest with me, do you really hate her because I helped raise her, or were you killing her just because they told you to?"  
"Daddy, it still hurts me. Why didn't you take me out of that room? All these years, I just wanted to see you, and you loved someone else as a daughter! I still don't understand. I… aaaaagh" Words failed the frustrated little girl. Kurama had to show patience, she was still only 5.  
"I feel bad about trying to kill her right in front of you. But I feel worse now- there's beauty in a lot of things, just looking around. And I didn't look around, Daddy, I was playing with her like a toy, because they told me I could. I didn't think about what was going on, I just... lashed out. I thought I was being a good girl... I feel so dumb, so stupid."

Kurama wiped tears from his face, and he crouched down. "Mariko, love, I've got some things to explain to you. Lots of big words here, can you handle that?"  
Mariko sat up. "Yeah Daddy, just take it slowly." Somehow a smile crept out.  
"Well, kids like you with horns, they're almost the same as kids like I was without them. But kids like you after a certain age get very… cranky. Something inside them starts saying bad things about people, same as other kids. But kids like you can get hurt and hurt other people far worse. Nana…" He stopped himself.  
"Daddy, don't stop. Please."  
"Nana I wanted to be different. I wanted to show her that people can love and hug and be happy as well. We had to do very bad things to you, and Nana, and many other kids with horns. But with Nana, I'd had enough of just standing there watching her get hurt days and weeks on end. I felt I had to tell her to be brave, to be strong."

"They wouldn't let you do that to me?" Mariko got to the point quick.  
"The man at the top wouldn't."  
"Who?"  
_"Ah yes, Kakuzawa"_, Kurama's inner soul smirked. He'd tried everything he could to take the blame himself, and it seemed so weak to buckle down and resort to blaming his boss, even though deep down it really was his fault.  
"Director Kakuzawa. He… is a very nasty man who wants to do evil things to people, and he's not even doing it because he likes it. I wanted nothing more than to take you and run a mile, but he knows I've done very mean things before and he uses… used that against me to keep me doing evil things for him, because I was too scared to run or tell anybody else. He made me feel like I owed him everything good that I had because of the times I didn't do what he said. I felt like I was doing bad things but he kept on telling me I was doing good, and that when I did something that made me feel good he told me he it was bad."

Now Mariko understood. They told him to hurt little girls, same as they told her. And she didn't even question why. Maybe it had something to do with…  
"And you told Mommy that you had to... do bad things? You're scared to see Mommy because of that?"  
"_Got it in one, Mariko. You're a smart girl."  
_"…. Not any more, Mariko. I want to see your mother now, more than ever. But I have to see Nana first. I don't know where she is, but I've gotta look. I just hope that when I see Mommy again she'll understand. I promised not to hurt you, and I…" Kurama started to tremble again.  
"You kept that promise, Daddy. YOU KEPT IT! YOU KEPT IT! YOU KEPT YOUR PROMISE!" She was yelling, happy. Kurama was blown away by that proud, booming voice. "You locked me away for a long time because you didn't want anyone to hurt me!"  
_"That's how it started, but it turned out to be the other way round. Nobody could hurt you more than I have. But I'm making it up to you now, Mariko."_

"Then I WILL be back for you and Mommy, Mariko. Mommy is just a while over" – pointing – "that way. I'll see you soon." He set off in a different direction, but not slouching like before. He walked like a tank was just lifted off his shoulders. But suddenly, Mariko remembered the monkey on her own back.  
"Daddy… there's something else. I have to find someone else too."  
"Who, Mariko?"  
"Someone I… Someone else I lashed out at." He didn't need to know that, not now.  
"…_does she mean Saito? I'd read in the file she was killed today, but they didn't say by who."  
_"Okay, Mariko, Good luck!" Kurama walked off. Now it was Mariko's turn to cast a guilty look at someone who'd just regained his resolve, as she slumped back in her chair.

"_Lucky escape, Mariko… Killer."_

Kurama prowled the back streets for a little while, then took a slight break. By now the clubs were emptying of revellers and that's when all kinds of trouble started for the living. Not that it mattered to Kurama personally, but he reasoned Mariko could do without all the fuss of learning the finer points of pisshead culture on top of everything else that was going on now. He could hear drunken singing in the distance, a world away from the day's nightmare sunset. Breaking off from the main streets he headed up some stone steps towards an old house. Something inside wished he wouldn't find her on the streets at all, and that he'd have to wait until morning so that she wouldn't be scared of her own shadow.

Hiromi still prayed on his mind though. Mariko had done a lot for his confidence in such a short time, but did he wonder if –even now- it was too late to make amends. "You've done enough to get Mariko to love you again, but is this too much?" This sudden bout of paranoia was interrupted by a noise from the house nearest to him.

"I'm… going to step outside for a minute, Yuka. I need to think."

"Nana?!?" Kurama made the short trip up to the top of the Kaede Inn, and literally walked through the front door. Nana stood there, head slumped forward. Like…. Lucy. Kurama fell to his knees. Was she now mad? Had the events of just hours ago driven her to homicidal insanity?

"You're really gone, Papa. You're…. really… gone." Deliberately letting go of her false legs, Nana fell forward onto her stumps and hands.  
"I'm alone… the last one left."  
_"A little forward... a little backward."_ Now Kurama was annoyed. The work that he'd just done to make amends with his real family fell by the wayside as he remembered - what he'd felt as - the failure to look after the family that he'd made to hide his shame. This time, he felt there was nothing he could do but see it self-destruct in front of his eyes. Kurama took a swipe at the dirt in front of him.

The dirt flew four feet to Kurama's left. And he went white as a sheet.

* * *

I was almost in tears writing some of that. So many bridges in flames, after all… 


	7. Nightmare before dawn

**DISCLAIMER: **I still don't own these characters.

Kensuke Kurama descends to a nadir in his own mind but Mariko drags his resolve out of the mire by telling him she has faith in his ability to keep his promise to his dead wife.But now we'll see that Mariko's nadir can go a lot, lot lower.

* * *

**CHAPTER SEVEN**

Mariko watched her father walk off into the distance. She was a little puzzled that he hadn't really stopped to ask exactly who she 'lashed out' at. He seemed to have taken that remark a little lightly, but was it that he hadn't taken in the fact that she almost confessed to Saito's murder? Or was it that he already knew? Even if that was possible, he could have no idea how senseless that one death was, or how Saito's one last act in life potentially saved the whole of mankind for just a little longer.

Mariko looked at many of her hands and wondered on that last possibility. Stinking drunk with that kind of power, she wondered aloud where it would have stopped- _"You thought you were playing weren't you, ya dummy? Slice 'em, dice 'em, cut 'em, chuck 'em about the place, it doesn't really matter long as Mariko's having fun, right?"_ Disgusted with herself, Mariko closed her eyes.

She opened them, and the sky was pitch black. Not the dark blue night she was wheeling through, but a still blackness void of those bright, shiny suns she found so soothing. The only other colour about the place was red. Around her feet, into the distance and over every house, tree, green, pavement and car around. She turned to look around, and could see nobody. She was smiling, satisfied with her special little playtime.

"I've finished playing now, can I have something to eat?"  
Nothing.  
"I'm really, really hungry."  
Nothing, still.  
"I said I'm REALLY hungry."  
Nada. Mariko slowly looked around the area. The red she could see wasn't a flat pane on the ground, it went over things like pavements, roads… and bodies. Plenty of those around the place.

Not quite understanding why nobody was answering her calls, Mariko wheeled over to one such body. She could see that it was a girl that looked no more than 25 years old, her eyes blackened like the sky and a tiny amount of red coming out of her mouth. That seemed to scare Mariko more than the strange split on the girl's back that ran from her right shoulder to her left hip, her right arm dangling with more red. Mariko slumped over in her chair slightly, then picked up the girl's head. Oopsy, it came off a bit easily. Her eyes went wide as she asked "Why isn't anybody answering?" and got no reply. She dropped the girl's head and backed her chair up slowly. Now she was starting to feel lonely.

"No more playing, I really need something to eat!"

She turned her chair in an anonymous direction and started to move forward. _"Little girrrrrrl…"_ she heard behind her. Mariko couldn't believe that could happen. She turned around, and found the woman she'd had a one-sided conversation with stood upright, her left hand holding her own head by the hair and her right trying to hold the gash together. She started walking towards Mariko slowly but eagerly. Mariko was now scared. Everything had made sense up until now, and she could barely think let alone react. _"Little girl, did you believe this was all fun and games?"_ the woman asked. Raising her head back onto her neck where it should never have parted, she relinquished her battle to hold her ravaged body together, electing to stretch her right hand out towards the demon in the wheelchair. Mariko, alarmed, started backing off.

"_You can't run, little girl."_ Something else behind her said with a sinister tone of voice. Spinning around, Mariko saw half of a man in his forties crawling towards her, scalped with lots and lots of red coming out. Suddenly, more people started coming up towards her. Sliced, diced, cut and chucked, they stumbled towards her over fences, cars, roads and pavements in a unilateral, menacing direction. Mariko's. Looking left and right quickly, Mariko could see whose handiwork this was. Lucy's? nope. Nana's? uh-uh. _"Yours. You did this, Mariko."_

The legion of victims was edging close enough so she could hear each tale of woe that came from their mouths- mutterings about leaving behind wives & kids, being late for weddings and stumbling upon death, people seeking release from life in general, words crawling out with more and more red each time. It was almost too much for even Mariko to bear. The girl with the sliced torso reached her destination, arms outstretched right towards her throat… _"Little girl…"_ Mariko let out a deafening scream, and closed her eyes….

"Excuse me, little girl? The twenty-something woman asked, puzzled. Mariko opened her eyes. It was almost dawn, there was no red in sight aside from the sky above, the red on the road was now grey with green patches here and there, and her would-be murderer looked at her as if she was a moron. No gash, no head hanging from her neck, just a puzzled look.  
Mariko stared back at her for a second and rubbed her eyes. Looking around she could see that they were on a side pavement, not the main road where she had shut them moments ago. "W..wh..what's going on?" she was compelled to ask.  
"You fell asleep in the middle of the road, you could have been… oh my, you already were."  
"I was already what?" Mariko retorted.  
"… you were killed."  
"… yeah. How did you know?"  
"I head a large bang not too far from here, and I've seen nobody else around the place"  
"Yeah, that was m… wait a second, if you're talking to me, that means…"  
"Hehehe- yes sweetie, I'm dead as well." Strangely, her voice was upbeat about this. Mariko was a little unsure how to act as she'd just stopped acting strange, and this odd woman started.

"So…how long have you been dead, and what are you doing here?"  
"Why, I've been dead for just over 5 years, and I was taking a walk around here as usual. Not much to do, I guess. You can't really stay in one place and talk to the same people over and over again, can you?"  
"What people?"  
"At the cemetery, of course! I had to have just a bit of time on my own, you see. Actually, I'm waiting for someone to turn up."  
Mariko was a little more relaxed now. "Who?"

"My husband. I've been looking for him but he's not around here. That's pretty much all I can do for now." She looked up above. "Hey look, the sun's coming up in a little while! Pity though, it looks like it might rain later today."  
Mariko was almost cheerful at that-"Actually… I've never seen the sun rise before!"  
"Hehehe… don't you get out much?" the woman was compelled to ask.  
"I… I guess not. Want to take a walk?"  
"Why sure, sweetie. You can tell me all about what happened to you. Do you want me to push?"  
"No no, as long as there ain't any really big hills I'll be OK."

And so the pair went in the fairly quiet pre-dawn. Some faint chattering could be heard in the distance, but neither of them were paying much attention. Mariko spent most of the trip staring out at the lush woods in the area surrounding the more tourist-driven temple section of town, in complete amazement in how much beauty could exist. If Mariko wished she could probably spend the first few days of her afterlife looking at things she never got the chance to before, but in her mind she still had a job to do- find Mommy and wait for Daddy. They stopped after a short while, and the kind woman sat herself down next to Mariko for a chat.

"So, honey, what's it like, being dead?"  
"I'm sorta getting used to it by now. I've just wandered about the place, while my dad was.."  
"Dad?" The woman asked, puzzled. Mariko had her attention.  
"… nothing, he just went to clear his head up for a little bit. He's dead too."  
That caught her off guard. She seemed genuinely shocked. "You were killed in the same blast? How awful!"  
"I know. That… was actually the first time I've seen him at all. I spent most of my life in some room somewhere."  
The woman frowned. "I… I don't know if I want to hear this right now, can we get moving in a minute? Where are you supposed to meet your daddy?"  
Mariko started to say "Right at the cem…" and stopped. A strange thought had crossed her mind- _"How old did Daddy say Mommy was?"_ The thought was quickly snuffed, but it appeared to be too late…  
"Cemetery? Your Mommy's buried there?"  
"Yeah. I'm supposed to find her and then wait for him. Can you take me there please?"

A little while later, the woman had taken Mariko back to her home near the woods. The home she shared with hundreds of others of many different walks of life, whose faces Mariko could probably have made out from her nightmare (although looking somewhat more pleasant). The woman had a little difficulty hauling Mariko's chair up the many well-weathered stone steps, so Mariko got out to make the way tightly gripping the stones to the side, having an easier time with that than wheeling her chair up the hill earlier.

"That looked like hard work", the woman cheerfully said.  
"I was having lots of trouble with that chair, it's more like something I want to snuggle up in." Mariko replied, getting back into it.  
"Little girl, can you remember your Mommy's name?"  
"Daddy did tell me, but I kinda forgot."  
The woman expected that. "Tell you what, I'll push you over to my grave, so we can stop and talk for a while."

They passed many of the other citizens of the yard, most of them engaging in neighbourly banter and a few looking at the girl in the chair. They reached the grave near the back marked _Hiromi Kurama_, and parked up for a rest.

"You know, sweetie, I never noticed before but those are some beautiful ribbons in your hair. They look so good on you!"  
Mariko smiled back at her. She was being awfully sweet to her just for its own sake. "They're actually there to cover up my…" _"Uh oh."_ Mariko's mouth gouged a gaping hole in her cover.  
"What?"  
"_That's torn it. You're going to have to show her now"_, the voice in Mariko's head ordered. She complied, taking the ribbons away to unveil her Diclonius heritage to the woman. "… horns."  
The woman took a shocked step backwards. She almost looked like… no, it wasn't possible. But even if she wasn't who she thought Mariko was, she now felt the need to press the issue.

"Did you say something about being in a room for most of.."  
"Yeah", Mariko continued. "I lived in this giant room for most of the time, only talking to… " _"Oh shit, that woman. The one I killed, better not tell her!"_ – back on went Mariko's armour.  
"… someone through speakers.", She continued, masking her guilt for just a little longer- "She kept on telling me my daddy said I had to stay in this room and never come out because I'd get hurt. But I can't really be mad at him anymore about it, he didn't really do it because he hated me."  
"Well, why did he do it at all!?!?" The woman was now angry at whoever could have done this cruel thing. And then Mariko filled in the final missing link-

**"He said he had to keep his promise to Mommy. He said she told him never to hurt me."**

"_It can't be! IT CAN'T BE!!"_ The woman's mind screamed as her last words in life echoed from this spectre's mouth. With hands trembling uncontrollably she fell to her knees, beholding the girl in front of her- "… how old are you?" was all she could ask, frightened and shocked as her eyes suddenly fell on the stone behind Mariko. The girl turned her head behind as if to see what the woman was staring at.  
"Five, I was fi.." she saw the tombstone. **_Hiromi Kurama. Hiromi. Kurama.__Hiromi Kurama, 1975 – 2000, Beloved Mother taken from us in childbirth, Rest In Peace._**

Now Mariko went pale, and turned around to see the woman with her head in her hands, in full-blown hysterics. She'd finally found her, and completely by accident. Just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl looking for each other.

"… … … MOMMY?!?!"  
Hiromi looked up, no longer hiding her face. "Mariko? MARIKO?!?!"  
Mariko fell out of her chair, sobbing uncontrollably. Hiromi bent over towards her, grabbing her towards her, never wanting to let her go even if the fate of the world depended on it. "Look at you, Mariko! Big and beautiful, just like I've dreamed for five years! Daddy kept his promise, I'm so proud of him!" they continued to embrace. Now they had the attention of every soul in the graveyard.

"Mommy, I have to tell you something really important, OK? Promise me you won't get all mad and stuff."  
Hiromi leant back. For a moment, her existence was almost complete. "I promise, Mariko, my wonderful daughter. What is it?"  
Mariko hesitated for a second, in fear of what might happen after she'd explain the situation. "… Daddy blew me up."

The entire cemetery gasped together.

"WHAT?"  
"He had to. He really, really had to."  
That almost destroyed Hiromi. "But… but…. Why? Why in god's name did he kill you?!"  
Mariko looked up, tears in her eyes. "I'll show you."

* * *

Next time, we finally catch up with a very ticked-off Lucy after suffering the indignity of being stolen by her drunken rival Bando.  



	8. Show him the way to go home

**DISCLAIMER: **The author would like to apologise for the escalating word count, and will try to keep it at a certain level for parity.

Mariko finally finds her mother and begins her own path to mental redemption, one that seems to have no foundation to the untrained eye. After all, who would expect a 5-year-old cripple to be capable of murder and dismemberment on a grand scale?  
A little earlier that night, Lucy would find out that redemption may not be the only thing on offer...

* * *

**CHAPTER EIGHT**

"This... is nuts", an exasperated Lucy muttered to herself, following Bando out of the main bay area. He'd been leading her on a far-from-merry dance away from the bridge with her own body as bait, stumbling from side to side. The chase had lasted about an hour into Sunday, and Lucy's legendarily short fuse had been burned up before she had the chance to lengthen it, even though she had the will. Mentally tired out and willing to accept the oblivion she thought she'd be getting at gunpoint hours before, all she wanted was another stab at the _pseudo-sleep_ she was attempting before Long-Gone Silver came calling. But to do so would allow Bando to escape, and the possibility of never finding any peace as a consequence was too much to ignore. Hence, accepting her improbable fate for now, she was resigned to following the drunkard wherever he would roam. But she did hold some small hope that even under the influence of an imminent termination of contract (not to mention the alcohol), Bando's constitution had its limits.

Her patience was rewarded just a couple of miles westward, near a small estuary. Lucy, suddenly regretting her latest one-sided victory at dusk, could see Bando's damaged ankle finally buckle under, sending Bando to earth, corpse on top.  
"I'll thank you for stopping, you little scrote! I'll be lucky to still have a body when you're done."  
"… somebody say something?" Bando replied.  
"I said I'll th…" she stopped. Could he actually hear her, or was this an alcohol-induced fantasy he was having?  
"Auuuugh, don't worry man. Y'know how it is, most people when they've had a drink they have a new sense of kle..klept…toe.. stealing. Mos' of the time it's traffic cones and suspenders, but not me! Not me! I've got me a woman who hates my guts, and I'm gonna give her the kiss of life tonight!"  
Hellfire and toothpaste entered Lucy's eyes. At the ultimate limit of disgust the phrase _'I would rather drink a glass of somebody else's drizzled shits'_ entered her mouth, with her hand covering it just to be safe.  
"I… could have sworn someone was sayin' something. Don't fight me, I'm to drunk to stand up. And if that's you, Lucy, I swear I wasn't gonna do nuthin'"

Now she was scared. Lucy was suddenly presented with the possibility that her link between the last world and this one wasn't as tenuous as she'd imagined. _"Discipline, Kaede, discipline"_ she whispered, cautiously. Bando wriggled out from under the body, and Lucy was stood aside him with a curious, guarded stance. Drunk or not, she just had to know if he was spouting off or not. Kneeling down, she slowly bent her head to whisper into his right ear… "Bando, please."  
His response was to barf onto the grass.  
"FOR FUCK'S SAKE MAN, WILL YOU STOP VOMITING AND TALK TO ME FOR ONE SECOND!" she screamed at him. He wiped his mouth, crawled out a little further and fell onto his back again.  
"… you're haunting me, aren't you?" Oh yes, Bando understood that. She really didn't know whether to laugh or cry in joy. If this little turd could understand him, then… perhaps… Kohta?  
"Heeheeheeheehee, relax Lucy baby. At least I can go to shit knowing you'd actually lost a fight once in a while."  
Lucy stood up for a second, measuring herself for a response. "Tell me why you won't let me rest in peace. Tell me why you're dragging my sorry body into the wild when all I want is to be.."

Thump-thump.

Her ghost clutched her chest, recoiling in pain. Following the sudden yell with his ears, Bando looked out in roughly her direction and cried. "What's happening?"  
"My heart just.." Thump-thump. "AAAGH!"  
Bando then smiled, and went back over to the body. He brushed her blood-matted hair back from her pale face to check her forehead, and found that the wounds appeared to be minimal at most, as if that wasn't the fatal entry point. He then placed a hand inside the neck of her shirt, drunkenly feeling his way down over her left breast to a point just under it. And then he stopped, finding a hole. Digging inward slightly (causing another burst of pain for her spirit), he found something metallic. And then he smiled, knowing exactly what was up.  
"Care to explain to me why you're feeling me up? Now?" Lucy's ghost gasped, clutching at the same space. Those words were a little more faint to Bando as he wasn't right next to her.

"If you can hear me, bitch, liss'n' up. Somewhere inside, you're still in there tryin' to wake up. You blocked gunfire aimed straight at your noggin with your weapons, but they were packing modified armour-bullets. The worst of it got put out no fuss, but a coupla shots went through. One bullet got shredded to bits upon blocking, and fragments flew up into your face, knocking you out. If that was a direct hit you'd be dead for sure."

"… **I'm still alive?!?!"** was all she could manage.

"Yeah, but coma..comatose" Bando slurred. "But that aint' the tricky bit. One bullet did get through your block a little, and the head of it went through your ribcage. Your heart's intact but the head of the bullet's poking through to it. The bullet itself is large enough to stop any bleeding, so if I try to take it out now you're fucked. That's why I'm takin' you up the river to my hidey-hole."  
He had to be beyond insane to try this, even when perfectly sober. But Lucy found out that she now had a vested interest in Bando's stupid little quest succeeding. She then leant in close towards his head and tearfully mouthed "But… I wanted to die."  
"Well, I wanted to kill you. Ain't that a bitch? Either way, I'm fired in the morning. That little fight we had at sundown? I took that a little badly, and went to celebrate the end of my career with a blast. If some dipshit up in the town centre happened to have a camera then I've got the morning edition of the local rag and a pink slip sewn up. Oh, and I socked a scientist in the mouth because he wanted my balls on a plate."  
"Yeah, Kurama did say that." Lucy acquiesced.

She was at an impasse. Satisfied with everything she'd accomplished up to the well-intentioned bodysnatching, she then felt a twinge of regret that she hadn't done more, and a feeling that leaving Kohta for good was a huge mistake. Years ago she'd heard the phrase "million-to-one shot" uttered by scientists for a lot of things, and now Lucy knew exactly what it meant. Million-to-one shots actually happened sometimes, and with equal improbability they happened in close relation: Her death, her un-death, the conversations on the bridge and this merry little quest by her plastered would-be saviour. If the next chain of events involved a second shot at Kohta, she had to believe that he could do this, and also believe that he wouldn't wake up in the morning as the same old Bando and finish the job off once and for all out of satisfaction. After all, _she_ wouldn't take a cheap victory but _he_ sure-as-hell would.  
"Just be careful. Please, Bando, just be careful." Lucy whispered. Bando returned to his feet and sickeningly _snapped_ his ankle back into line. He then reached for the body, slowly picking it up and balancing it on his shoulders. It looked for a second like the celebration was wearing off. Walking forward in measured steps, Bando eyed up the creek in the distance. Lucy followed without a shred of anger in her eyes.

Around two to three hours later they had reached a small shack upriver, nestled behind some bushes. Setting down Lucy with a little more composure, Bando reached down to the water and scooped a handful, drinking it. Thankfully for him salt was absent, so he scooped some more and washed his face, finally removing those damned sunglasses. Sepia-tinted bushes greeted his eyes in the failing darkness, with little blurring to speak of. He belched into his hand and sniffed, trying to differentiate between puke and Famous Grouse.  
"You lightweight piece of crap, you only had three after all that!" he muttered. He looked around for a while, staring at the sky- the night was starting to creep away with a faint touch of red hanging in the air.  
"Meh, the rain might do me some good." He said to nobody in particular. And then he remembered the drunken conversation he'd had with the air. How the hell could he reason with someone who wasn't even there and tell her/him/it what he was going to do? And why the hell did he want to save her after all? Wasn't his entire _raison d'etre_ to blast her to hell? Far too many questions for a mind that – in a short while – would have a Scotch-induced headache to contend with. But nonetheless he had to do one small check before any surgery would start-

"You still here? Are you still trying to crawl out from the abyss?"  
"Yeah." Lucy meekly said. She was as ready to drop as he was.  
"Well, this is it. My place. I know you can hear me, but I need you to do one thing for me."  
"What's that?"  
"Stay outside. I can't remove the bullet in this condition, and I cannot contend with you talking to me in any event. Hell, I can't even guarantee what I'll be like in a few hours. My bullshit scientific instincts would guess that it's almost 4am, and I'll need all the light I can get. Can you sleep like that?"  
"You woke me up, you jerk." Lucy said with a slight smile. Bando snickered.  
"If not, enjoy the dawn." He said, lifting the body up with his hand accidentally slipping over the hole. Thump-thump.  
"Aaack, watch it!" She squealed, her words lost to him. He shut the door behind him.

Inside he laid her on an empty chair and checked her pulse. So far, so good. He then looked at the solitary table he had inside the shack, and brushed off the many military files, pictures of Lucy, newspaper cuttings of her horrific credentials dating back to the old 'serial killer' reports 8-9 years ago and scribbled notes of his onto the floor, checking the old pine table was smooth and clean enough to work on. Satisfied, he returned to the body, which had assumed a sleeping position by accident – her vacant head leaning to one side, the blood from the shrapnel drying out but a fresher sample drooling from her mouth.  
"You must be crazy to want to whack her", Bando slurred. He picked her up, laying her onto the table and slowly but surely removed her black vest over the top, then her pink t-shirt, leaving Lucy in a badly-fitted brassiere and a bullet-hole just underneath it.  
"Crazy. Yes, you are." He said, slumping into the chair. The whiskey finally won.

Outside, Lucy sat looking down the river, greeted by absolute silence bar the local wildlife. This was far too weird for anybody to predict, and just for her own sake she recapped the entire story to her addled mind-

"_Last night, I said sorry to Kohta for everything. And then I went to die, but then Kurama showed up with his daughter. I then explained to him that Nana's gone to live with Kohta, and then we went to sleep. Up to then it was all rational. The man who's been spending the last month trying to kill me shows up, off his face, and then snatches me right under my nose, and through all of that he tells me I'm not dead. And what's more if I ever want to see Kohta again I have to believe him."_

Just after finishing the sentence, the red sky carried its threat out, sending rain down to Lucy little by little. It was weird to see the water that washed over her face the night after she broke out of the facility weeks ago passing harmlessly through to the ground. Weird in that she could see it happening, but she could not feel it at all. But that mattered little, as Lucy had to accept her lot for now. Curling up just outside the shack, it was time for another stab at sleep.

"_Pretty funny, what can happen in a month."

* * *

_

And there we leave the story for a little while. I'm taking a short break for a bit, no more than a week or so to enjoy Wrestlemania and the start of Britain's upcoming bank holiday season. Next, Kurama and Nana have a moment or two... 


	9. Doctor, the patient will see you now

**DISCLAIMER: **You can save a bunch of money on your car insurance by taking the bus to work. And the last chapter wasn't ghostwritten by Vince Russo, I swear.

Kensuke Kurama's road through the lesser parts of Hell branched off in many places, and at quite a lot of them he bumped into Nana, and the conversations along the way certainly weren't about dubious satellite navigation. The only turn-offs they were interested lead right back out of the place.

* * *

**CHAPTER NINE**

Kurama didn't know what had shocked him more- the sight of his beloved Number Seven reduced to the madness he'd tried everything in his power to save her from, or the fact that he'd just flung a small pile of earth just to his left. Perhaps that was just an illusion keeping him from finally succumbing to the guilt he'd precariously ran from for so long, the gunshot wound that not even Mariko – and possibly not even Hiromi – could heal.  
Nana looked up to the night sky, glassy-eyed. Taking the opportunity so that she couldn't see it happen again, he then took another swipe. This time, nothing. Again, he chopped forward- nothing, as Nana wiped her eyes. But a third time, with sheer determination, the ground moved for him just a little bit. This was enough to convince Kurama that the act itself wasn't enough, it required more than a little bit of willpower.  
Nana, still focused on the stars, started talking in a deadpan tone- "I failed you, Papa. You told me to run as far away from this hell, but I was too dumb to listen…" but Kurama caught a naughty idea. Clenching his hand in a cup with a great deal of mental focus, he scooped up a little bit of dirt, thought _"Aww, just shut up!"_… and chucked it right in Nana's face. She couldn't finish her mournful outburst, spluttering and coughing it instead.

Wiping her mouth and uttering "… the hell was that?" Nana's train-of-thought bound for the cliff edge screeched to a halt. He'd gotten her attention… or perhaps not. Nana looked around the place, and Kurama dug into the ground again, waiting for an opportune moment. Nana then looked at the huge pot-hole in the ground right in front of her that wasn't there before. Just to be sure she wasn't going loopy, she checked around for Wanta, wondering aloud if he'd got loose. She found him tied to the inner door where he should be. Before she could turn again, another dirt shot landed right in her ear, and she rolled onto her back. Nana would normally never said the very rude word she said next, but in her view somewhere in the universe it was comedy hour, and the spotlight was on her. Reaching for her legs with her lower pair of vectors, she got to her feet to find the 2nd pothole right by her left side.  
"I am _really_ not in the mood for…" Nana started to say it, but she saw shot #3 come from just in front of her, and she jumped to the side, the dirt harmlessly hitting the screen door. Thinking she'd pulled a fast one on the dark forces, Nana grinned. Kurama'd turned that frown upside-down, but he wasn't done. Letting out an audible snicker that had whistled past Nana's ear, he then headed towards the dog. Now Nana was guarded, watching out for the malevolent mud-monster to make his next move. This was to slowly untie Wanta's leash, letting him loose.

Although the dog was fairly alert, he wasn't concerned enough to move. Nana, roving her head side to side, caught Wanta sitting right where he would be, but without his tether attached. Now she was scared. Backing away slowly from the dog, Kurama dashed behind her, digging two holes mere feet behind her. Nana met the ground yet again, and Wanta dashed over to her, licking her in the face excitedly. Fear gave way to frustration, and Nana let go of her right arm, carefully grasping Wanta's collar with the vector and placing him just to the side. Grabbing the limb and getting to her feet slowly, she faced the sky again and addressed her audience:

"Would you PLEASE cut it out and tell me what's going on? I've lost two people who've been good to me tonight and this is the last thing I need!"  
Nothing.  
"Fine! I'm going to bed!" she uttered in abject humiliation, and she went to brush her face and clothes off, looking down at the ground. To be met by the word **_PAPA_** carved into it. The wind changed and her face stayed like that for a fair while, her plastic fingers in uncontrollable spasm.  
"Nana, what's going on? It's almost 3AM, get to bed!" Kohta growled out from the inside. Instinct overcame disbelief, and Nana collected herself.  
"Sorry! Wanta got loose. I'll be inside in a minute!" She coolly said. Tying the dog back to the front door. She then set about kicking all the dirt back into place, finishing up next to that one taunting word. Wiping it out of recognition, she turned down her own her own narration considerably-

"You're losing it, Nana. You're going ga-ga. He told you to be strong, you couldn't manage that, and some joker's having a laugh because of it. I mean, that probably wasn't even him, and if it was, I wish he'd just cut all of this bullshit out and just say something."  
"Like this?" Kurama replied.  
"Yeah, like th…."  
Kurama put his ghostly hand on her shoulder, and she quite literally fell to pieces.

Barely able to see through the tears welling up, Nana could make out a faint, blurry silhouette against the night sky. Whatever it was, it reached down to pick up her arm up and handed it back to Nana. She replaced each limb in turn, and the ghoul – with relative difficulty – picked her up off the ground, looking deep into her rich-lavender eyes.  
"I have never been so proud as to say to you that was the single biggest load of shit I've ever heard, Nana." Kurama started. She let out a bittersweet chuckle.  
"Nana, I don't even know where to start. There's so much I've wanted to say about a lot of things, but you're not the only person I want to say them to."  
"… can I go inside first, Papa?" Nana asked. "I'm naked under this coat and I'll catch a cold. Can you walk through walls & stuff?"  
The faint, blurry silhouette nodded, setting her down. Nana finished cleaning the dirt up, and excitedly walked in, and went upstairs. Kohta growled again, and Nana tiptoed into the room she shared with Mayu. Checking she was sound asleep, she slipped on a nightgown and did something very unusual, even for her- placing two spare pillows under her futon in a straight line, she placed her limbs into the equivalent position and took a hold of the wooden floor with her lower set of vectors. Sure to frighten the living hell out of anyone in sight, the floating torso of Nana silently made its way to an upstairs toilet overlooking the front courtyard. Leaning herself on the closed lid, she blocked the door off from anyone wanting to come in.

"Papa, are you in here?" she whispered?  
"Yes, Nana" Kurama replied.  
"All this time, I've devoted my entire life to surviving everything that's thrown at me because you told me to be big and brave and strong, and you've done the same without anybody telling you to be brave at all. Heck, I don't even know what you've been through."  
"I don't think you should know, Nana. Even though you've been through a ton of hurt, My hurt's all in my head."  
"I've got all night, Papa."  
She was sitting comfortably, so he began.

"Do you know who the Director is?"  
"Kinda… your boss, right?"  
"Yes, right. Well, a lot of girls like you with hor.. cornets on their head **_(pointing)_** are being born right now when there weren't for a long time. You know about your special arms?"  
"Yeah"  
"Well, they start growing out when babies become 3 years old, and a lot of kids can't control them well enough to know what damage they can cause"  
Nana didn't follow him for a second, but then found the sad evidence where her skin ended and the plastic began. She nodded. Kurama continued-  
"Because of that, the Director believed that a lot of kids like you would be too dangerous to everybody else, so he wanted to keep a few to work with and the rest… to be sent…"  
Nana mouthed "fucking hell". She knew what was coming next, and it hit her in the face. "To sleep, Papa. To die."

Kurama started crying. "Yes, Nana. Not just one baby here and there, but dozens, and hundreds. I won't lie to you, Nana, I… I…" he fell apart. She put a vector roughly where his shoulder was. He couldn't feel it, but he saw she was trying to be braver than ever.  
"The Director's very sick in the head, Nana. And for a long time, I thought I was becoming sick as well. Not just with getting rid of babies either. Watching the few we kept behind…"  
"I can guess where this is going, Papa. All those terrible, horrible things I went through- I'm not the only one, am I?"  
Kurama shook his head. "No. One day in the lab, we had Experiment #3 in the cannonball room." Nana gulped at this. "And she kept on begging us to stop throwing them at her. After two of them hit her she was weeping and hurting like hell, so I demanded they stop firing them. A few minutes later I was talking to some of my fellow workers, and I heard gunshots. I saw Mr. Omori pinned to the door by some sort of thing gripping him for a moment, and then he dashed into the room, otherwise unhurt. I went outside the door, and I think a vector was thrust into my head. I turned to look, and it was her. Number three, with a guard's head in her hands. I'll never forget what she said to me, never."  
"What, Papa?"  
"'I wanted to thank you, so Thank You.' She was bluffing about her pain. Then just like that, another worker friend of mine **_(finger-guns)_** blows her head off right in front of me. She was only 6, like you are now. Same purple hair as well."  
Nana's eyes widened. "… Chigusa. It must be."

Kurama was shocked beyond paling. "You knew?"  
"My sister… was taken about a month before I was born. I heard Mama talking as she handed me over to the soldiers. What happened next?"  
"About a year later, Omori and his wife had a kid. She was born with horns, and the Director ordered me to kill her. Omori plead with me not to do it, and I just kept on telling me it was for his good and for everybody's good. He then asked me what I'd do if it was my own daughter. I couldn't answer him."  
Nana understood exactly what her papa was going through just recalling these horrid things. And she could guess the next part herself.  
"And then Mariko happened, papa."  
"Not too long after, yes. They had to cut my wife's belly open to pull her out, too, and it left her very weak. And like the biggest asshole on God's green Earth, I towed the Director's line, just like I did with Omori. My wife got very mad with me and fainted. It was too much for her. Later that night… later that night, I went down to where Mariko was, and I went to.." he turned his head away, sobbing.  
"You couldn't do it, papa. Not this time."  
"Hiromi turned up, bleeding over the floor. She was in a trance, and she fell down in front of me. She made me promise not to do it, and then… she… died…" he trailed off and hung his head, beating it with his fists.

"Papa… PAPA, LISTEN TO ME!" Nana said, almost so that anyone passing would hear her.   
"You drew the line, you hear me?" she went to slap him in the face with a vector (passing straight through of course), and that seemed to break Kurama's insanity for a moment.  
"What did the Director do about her?"  
"He locked her away, and ordered me never to see her again. That… was the lowest thing he's ever done to me. All the excuses under the sun to make me do what he wanted me to do, and now he had a real excuse to stop me from walking away from it all. All my daughter ever was to that bastard was an excuse. Leverage. When he took her away from me, I felt like I was floating deep in a well, clawing my way up the walls, but with him throwing more water on my head. Nowhere else to go but down."  
He sat down on the floor next to the toilet, picking his head up a little. The absolute worst of the tale was over for the moment, but Kurama new he had to repeat the tale in some sort of fashion to Hiromi. Not that this felt like a warm-up. On the scale of things this was a baptism of fire, and not the only time he was fixing to go through it.

"Not too long afterward though, someone threw me a rope."  
"Who, Papa?"  
"… you."

* * *

We'll pick up on their conversation again a little later. Up next (sometime next week), Hiromi gets a crash course in the brutality of a Diclonius. 


	10. My daughter, my monster

**DISCLAIMER: **I still don't own these characters.

When people grow up too fast, things get damaged beyond control a lot easier. At least, that's the way it will appear to Hiromi.

* * *

**CHAPTER TEN**

"I'll show you." – The biggest surprise Hiromi had in the 5 years since her death by complications of a C-section would be presented by the fruit of that operation. 'Surprise' barely covered the shock of the concept- how could _her own daughter_ be conscious enough to attempt to justify Kensuke's cowardly attempts first to murder her, then to incarcerate her from society? Barely hours earlier she'd first found Mariko wigging out in the middle of the road, that couldn't have had anything to do it, could it? A dumbstruck Hiromi could do naught but wait for an improbable answer.  
The answer came flowing from Mariko's back- two tentacles appearing to be of both smoke and water, with the ends forming… hands. And then two more tentacles. And Four more- 8, no, 12, no, 16, wait… 24. Twenty-four other-worldly appendages swimming in front of Hiromi's eyes, with the bearer of those hands staring at the floor, sniffling. And everybody in the graveyard knew exactly what was going on, backing away in both a very definite sense of fear and a slight sense of reverence. This did not go un-noticed by Hiromi, with her head darting backwards to measure the shock of the locals. For a moment it seemed like it was a gag that everybody was in on except Hiromi, but the stone stares that met her gaze assured her it was certainly no joke.

"What are these… things, Mariko?" Hiromi asked.  
"They started growing about 2 years ago" Mariko began to explain- "I didn't know what they were for, so I tried asking this voice that kept on talking to me every day about them. She only told me that they were special to me and that nobody else had them, so in a way I felt good about having them. I couldn't even see them myself as most of the time I was wearing a strange hat. Then every once in a while 2 more would come out, and after a while I would just take that for granted. I couldn't figure out what I could do with them, so I just walked around the place I was in, feeling how big it was. A little while later, I think I might have pushed one of them too hard- I heard a loud noise, and I checked out the same place- it wasn't flat anymore, it was all bent inward. The Voice asked me what happened, so I told her, and she said I was a bad girl and told me not to do it again… "  
"So you say that you can destroy things with these arms of yours?" Hiromi had to ask.  
"Yes, pretty much" Mariko said, shamefully. Hiromi looked behind her at the crowd, and (understandably) annoyed, turned to face her neighbours of 5 years.  
"You knew about these things?" she pressed.  
A middle-aged man answered. "Yes. While you were out walking a fortnight back, a couple of young girls got into a fight here. Damn near wrecked the place, hurling each other around with those… _things._ It took the caretakers near a day just to tidy the yard up. I… don't want to be specific about the gory details but the younger kid got badly hurt, and a special tactics team arrived with some sort of scientist and carried her off. The scientist slapped the older girl and she ran off into town."

"_Scientist?"_ Hiromi made a mental note. Turning back to Mariko, she cheerfully said "But that makes sense doesn't it Mariko, if you could hurt people with those things, surely you should think about what you're doing?"  
Mariko couldn't smile back for the one reason gnawing at her brain she hoped she wouldn't have to explain.  
"Yeah Mommy, but I was only playing."  
Hiromi understood a little better- _just like a child with a new toy._ Mariko continued:  
"But I got a bit bored doing nothing but talking most of the time, so I tried different stuff with them- I found out that by putting 2 or 3 of them on the floor, I could put my self… **(pointing)** way up, you know. I felt my way around again and I could see this room was really _really_ big, and I didn't know why I was in here at all. So I asked that voice again, and she told me to be nice and good and not to ask any more questions. I wasn't very happy, and I got very bored and started to… just… hit the walls. She got very mean with me and told me to stop it, so I did. I was only trying to have a bit of fun, but after a while I started getting very cross 'cause I couldn't do anything, Mommy. I couldn't even really play."  
Mariko started to cry again. Hiromi held her to her chest, telling her not to worry.  
"It's not that, Mommy, it's what happened next."  
"What happened next, sweetie?" Hiromi had to ask.

----

The two ladies sat out under the breaking red dawn, just about content with their lot- the one with the brown tied-up hair had been there for a few weeks, wandering about the Bay doing nothing of note but preferring the beautiful view of the sea from this wooded hillside. Her friend- a girl a little older than her with black pigtails – stared out in awe of another dawn she thought she'd never see again. She had only been free for about a day, and wanted little more than to forget her fate and take advantage of the time that she'd been given out of nothing. As the rain began to fall, she took in the sights and laid back with her re-acquaintance. She began to speak-

"It was one hell of a walk back here. I never realised that sea was just so darn deep."  
"Climbing out of it was the worst bit, I couldn't tell if I was going to hit the beach or the cliff wall! Did you see any fish?" her friend asked.  
"A shark passed through me!" she giggled. "I was just spaced out for a moment. I'd only watched stuff like this on TV when I was a kid, but there I was, just stood in the middle of it! I couldn't see too well though so I couldn't afford to change direction or I may have ended up in Australia after a week!"  
"That's funny," the friend started to say, "My dad always told me that ghosts are stuck in one place for ever and ever and ever, I never though I could go… anywhere."  
The newcomer began to tease her – "Perhaps this one place is a lot bigger than you think. I don't think you could walk all the way to Tokyo, even if it is your home."  
Her friend became sullen for a second. "I'm… not sure if I want to go home right now. I think my family are still getting over it. I bet they were told a pack of lies as well."  
"Be fair, nobody wants to know their daughter was… _y'know_."  
Thinking about it, the brown-haired girl winced slightly, and moved her hand to her throat. Her companion noticed that against her smooth, pale skin there was a jagged red scar running the entire circumference of her neck.

"Does that still hurt?" the companion asked, concerned.  
"Not so much a month on. But _you_ got it worse, and I bet _your_ family still doesn't even know yet. It only happened yesterday morning, didn't it?"  
"Yeah. Still, I'm thankful I'm here, watching the dawn. I thought once you went, that was… y'know… _it._"  
"Uh-huh. I could do with a coffee right now, though."  
"Yeah, that's the only thing I miss. Once you died, the coffee was the shits."  
"You're just _saying_ that, you utter flirt."  
"No, I'm serious! That fatso they brought in from Yokohama didn't even use a full spoonful each cup! And he always put in the milk before the sugar!"  
"Now that's just plain _wrong_!"  
"Ha ha ha!"  
"Heeheehee."

They enjoyed each other's company for a few minutes, before hearing a loud yell back at the graveyard.  
"What was that?" the brown-haired girl asked.  
"Don't know, I think I'll check. Back in a minute."  
The girl with the pigtails got up and _glided_ up the hill into the woods. And the rain began to fall with a little more force, through her friend to the dirt. But content she was (just about), now lying back with her arms supporting her head.

"_I don't know if I can really hold a grudge… I only got her name, not her face."_

---

Mariko was trying everything in her power to stop crying. "The day they let me out, the lady who was always talking to me came to meet me outside the room. I guess she figured that she should come to see me because she was acting like she was my Mommy there. But when they took that stupid hat off my eyes, I could see she wasn't you. I just wish I hadn't… I can't even say it, I'm so sorry!"  
Mariko broke away from Hiromi and started to limp towards the woods, in mad fear of the inevitable confession she was about to make. Hiromi was aghast. _"Is she trying to say she…no. It can't be."_  
"Mariko, come back here! COME BACK HERE THIS INSTANT!" Hiromi cried out.  
"I can't! Stay away from me, Mommy!" came the reply. Mariko hit the woods, and Hiromi went in, with a couple of concerned onlookers in pursuit. Nothing had ever scared her more- not the room, not Saito's face, not the bomb that blew her arm off, not even Daddy with a gun drawn in her face last night. The monster inside Mariko's head was clawing its way right from her pineal gland outward, burrowing to her scalp with a guttural roar. The chase didn't last that long, as her fragile legs gave out minutes into it. Desperately reaching out to get back to her feet, the multitude of vectors tried to smash, grab and skewer everything from dirt to tree-bark to grass, only to pass harmlessly through each in turn. All she could do was support herself with her arms and crawl along the muddying earth.

Hiromi caught up with her daughter in short order, and Mariko turned to look at her like she was a bullet from Daddy's gun travelling straight between her eyes.  
"What did you do? FOR THE LOVE OF GOD MARIKO, PLEASE, WHAT DID YOU DO?" Hiromi screeched, not wanting to hear the only answer that made the slightest sense. Mariko faced the train bearing down on her, and made a mental prayer for her soul just as the wheels reached her legs.

"_**IIIIIIIII KILLLLLLLLLLLLLLED HERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!"**_

The bullet from Daddy's gun hit Hiromi between the eyes, not Mariko. A huge bucket of disbelief, affirmation, nausea and guilt forced itself down her throat and she gagged.  
"I… tore her in two and threw her through a window. I felt like nobody could harm me, and I could do what I wanted to who I liked. I didn't stop there, Mommy…"  
"No more! Please, darling, no more!" Hiromi cried out, fearing for her daughter's sanity.  
"SHUT UP! I have to say this!" Mariko was in freefall now. "I went to kill somebody else too, but then… Yes, that's it! my arm blew up. Somebody blew my arm off!" Mariko pulled up the sleeve of her blouse to show Hiromi a large scar running around her arm just above the Triceps.  
"I was in so much pain I couldn't use my other arms anymore, and I didn't kill anybody else. _But she was dead_, Mommy! She talked to me every day, she made me feel warm, she told me what to do, she taught me things, she was sweet, she was nice and just because… she wasn't… you…" Mariko turned away, the monster finally out in the open and laughing at her. Hiromi moved forward to place her arms around her, but something approaching in the woods stopped her.

"What have I done? Mommy, what have I done?!?" Mariko cried out, completely spent.  
"… **you've done a very brave thing, Mariko."** Saito spoke, approaching her. Mariko most certainly did not expect her to show up, at the damnedest time as well. She couldn't react at all- as if being run over by a train wasn't enough, now a coyote had came along to sniff the meat to see if it was worthy as lunch.  
Next Saito addressed Hiromi, teary-eyed. "Are you her real mother?"  
"Yes."  
Saito smiled. "Her father would come by every day with huge piles of his old schoolbooks, and I read them to her every day. Director Kakuzawa would never let him talk to her so mostly it was just Mariko and me chatting, sometimes his secretary Shirakawa would talk as well. Most of the time Mariko was really excited about learning things, but she could be really cranky at times. I'd heard about all the other kids with horns being able to cut and smash things with such strength, but I… just got careless." She then went to hug Mariko earnestly.  
"Can I?" she asked. Hiromi nodded, and Saito hauled Mariko up into her arms. Mariko was gurgling regret- "I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry" over and over again.  
Saito closed her eyes. "It's OK, don't worry, we can't get hurt anymore. What happened to you, baby?"  
"Daddy triggered the rest of the bombs. He got killed too."  
Hearing that, Saito cried a little more.

Hiromi, however, wasn't easily satisfied. "Did you mention… other kids like this?"  
Saito looked up. "Yeah… How long have you got?"

* * *

**NEXT:** Hope you read the next chapter on an empty stomach! It's amateur surgery night! 


	11. Luck be a Lady

**DISCLAIMER:** The following chapter contains a graphic and poorly-conceived sequence involving field surgery on a living person. The ignorant author strongly suggests that you never, EVER undertake such a thing without prior medical training. And if you actually have any, the author cordially invites you to R&R this chapter and berate the schmuck for his poor knowledge on the subject. If you're lucky, he may provide edited highlights of the best insults by means of an interlude, as we're pretty much halfway through the story.

* * *

**CHAPTER ELEVEN**

In Sunday morning's rain, Lucy had finally attained the sleep she was looking for. Inside her fragile mind she was standing in the moonlight with Kohta, permanently embracing the man who would save her soul once and for all.

"I've changed my mind. I want to live this life." Lucy whispered in his ear. "I'm an evil girl, but that's going to change. I want self-control, I want to smile, I want to laugh, I want to see strange animals, I want to eat bad food, I want to be soaked in water, I want to be in your arms. I want to say sorry to everybody I've wronged and tell them I'm in love with you, I want to goof off now and then, I want to fix that damn clock in the hall, I want a million things I couldn't have before… and I want to sit back and know I don't have to run anymore, not from anyone, not from myself."  
Smiling, Kohta began to speak…

Thump-Thump.

The ghost awoke with a bang in her chest.  
"AAAAAAAAAAAaaaagh…" she cried out, clutching her heart and looking around. She was asleep for –at most- two hours and the rain was lashing down with force, dawn attempting to break out under the ruddy-grey cloud cover.  
"QUIET! I've started!" a loud yell presented itself from inside the shack. Lucy looked behind her and groaned- every happy occurrence in her short dream hinged on that maniac pulling this stupid operation off with a minimum of interruption, and she didn't like it one bit. But Lucy was now _certain_ she did not want to remain as ether, and even if he failed and she were forced to wait the long wait for Kohta to join her, Lucy was somewhat thankful that Bando had banished her outside the shack- familiar to the sight of entrails and remains, she doubted even she could stomach seeing her own on display. Nonetheless she knew the palpitations were going to become more frequent, so she pulled her pink t-shirt up to her mouth, biting down on it hard. Gripping onto the ground out of instinct, all she could do was focus on Kohta's face in the horizon and pray.  
For possibly the first time in her life, she felt completely and utterly powerless.

Inside, Bando checked everything he had to hand for this impossible mission- some medical bags, a single camping-issue butane tank on which rested a saucepan full of water, two packets of standard-issue sutures, two pairs of tweezers, paperclips that he'd lifted from his files, cotton wool, bandages and a Bowie knife. Rummaging around the place he'd found a cassette player that he'd bought for next to nothing just before taking his role with the Corporation, rendered almost pointless through a lack of mains power and a dying battery supply. He checked the tape inside- a Frank Sinatra compilation. Hauling the player onto the chair he'd occupied minutes before, he pressed the Play button- the tape had been cued onto _Luck Be A Lady_. Stifling a laugh that caused his head to smart, he pressed 'Stop' and carefully removed Lucy's brassiere so that nothing could interfere with what he needed to do- with the possible exception of Bando's libido. Knowing he had mere minutes to act in case anything could dislodge the bullet, he held one fist to his mouth, closed his eyes and muttered something. Bando then pressed 'Play' once more.

_#They call you Lady Luck… But there is room for doubt- at times you have a very unladylike way of running out#_

Bando dug into his pant pockets and found a lighter fashioned like a dragon, turning a nozzle on the tanker and pushing his thumb down on the dragon's tail causing a mild plume of flame to ignite it. He then looked into another medical bag and found two small metallic plates, one thicker than the other. They were cast into the saucepan along with a small handful of paperclips.

_#You're on this date with me, the pickings have been lush, and yet before this evening is over you might give me the brush#_

Bando then bent over Lucy's torso to begin the deed- he had to make sure bone hadn't splintered inward otherwise his campaign was doomed from the start. He pressed the tweezers into the sides of the wound, causing her ghost to silently yelp outside. Satisfied that bleeding wasn't on the horizon, he tucked into the wound to find the head of the bullet.

_#You might forget your manners, you might refuse to stay, and so the best that I can do is pray#_

Feeling her ribs millimetre by painstaking millimetre, a small '**tink'** found the target. Bando's new eyes were better than the ones he was born with, and they judged that the head was just small enough to move with the tweezers. Moving down the sides of the head he tightly gripped the tweezers and began the most dangerous part of moving it upward- to slip now would be fatal. Bando had never been afraid of anything more in his life. Supporting his self on the side of the desk with his other hand he slowly moved his arm upwards, and the inches felt like miles. The head of the bullet slipped a little as his hand uncontrollably shook, and came close to slipping back down the hole. But with a swifter movement the offensive object was out of the way, asides the side of the tweezers catching the wound's wall again (along with another yelp from the ghost.)

_#A lady doesn't leave her escort, it isn't fair, and it's not nice#_

Bando moved his gaze directly over the hole, looking at the result. Arteries and veins intact, no fresh blood caused from the removal, but one other problem posed- the impact of the bullet had cracked the rib messily, and the jagged edges were pointing inward towards the heart. Whereas the risk of a puncture was greatly reduced with the absence of the bullet head there was still a danger that a direct chest-first impact of any kind would cause catastrophic damage. Bando was then faced with a dilemma- the plates he'd put on the boil would be sterile in another couple of minutes, so whilst they cool down should he make some attempt to shear the broken edges? And with what, exactly? The Bowie knife would never fit that role without jeopardising the wound.

_#A lady doesn't wander all over the room and blow on some other guy's…#_

The player cut out. Just what he didn't need. There was no way he could hook one of the plates underneath the ribcage because gravity would pose an immediate problem, and in any event he had far too small a hole to work with. The best he could reason to do was to insert a tiny amount of wool to shore up the cracks and wire it over with sutures before attaching one of the main plates on top. She would need a more thorough operation soon enough anyway (getting one would be problematic in itself), and if that would be attained inside 2 hours with a minimum of physical expenditure there'd be a fighting chance of avoiding infections from any source. The other problem would be in cutting all of the materials to fit inside a hole little larger than the face of a watch.  
Taking the saucepan off the boil, Bando dug out a pair of scissors from another bag and lifted the thinner of the 2 plates out with the tweezers, motioning to cut it with the scissors. A fine cut came easy and neat enough. Returning the pot to the fire, Bando returned to the hole, tearing a portion of cotton wool off and attaching lengthy sutures underneath it on each side.

Outside, Lucy released her death-bite from her shirt- things up to this point had been less painful than she realised, for which she was grateful. The rain was letting up at last, and even though she could no longer smell the grass she remembered it to be fresh and pleasing to her senses. She wiped the tears from her eyes, and felt a slight tickling sensation where her heart was. Lucy wondered if Bando was being a little lax or teasing her like the worst of this was over. For a second she was considering looking in on the op, curious as to how he was coping- a thought quashed by the notion that her reactions could exacerbate the situation. As the cloud began to part revealing a glorious breaking sunshine, she couldn't help but raise a little smile in hope. And then she felt a large burn breaking her train of thought.

"Son of a…" she cussed through her teeth.

Curiosity winning out at last, she tiptoed through the closed door to see her own topless body on the table, Bando with his chin on her left breast, feverishly lowering something shiny inside her. She looked down at the tanker with a saucepan on it piping heat like no tomorrow, and came to the conclusion that she really didn't need to know what he was up to. Turning around to leave, she heard a soft clank behind her. Bando had knocked the tanker over, the saucepan spilling water over the floor but leaving the pan the right way up. More importantly the tanker had fallen on its side with the flame precariously close to the floor of the shack.

Instinctively, she dived to the floor the same time as Bando had got up to react, and she leaned forward to extinguish the flame with one of her hands. Both of them were surprised that actually worked, mainly Bando.  
"Couldn't wait, could you?" he figured. She couldn't help a guilty chuckle- "Nope!"  
"Has that damn sun come through yet?"  
"Yes."  
"The hard part's over. Don't bother looking, there's not much to see. But I really do need absolute silence now. And by the way, thanks."

Lucy swiftly fell silent at request. Picking the saucepan from the ground and emptying the rest of the water, Bando lifted two paperclips from inside, shaking them off with the tweezers and using the scissors to carefully bend them open- the idea being that by looping over the plate and solid parts of rib he could secure the plate together better than using yet more sutures, and he'd need quite a lot of them to sew the wound up if that was at all possible. From then, it would be a piece of cake- dress the wound and pad it up with the thicker plate to stop any sudden intrusions to the same area.  
Lowering the clips into position unavoidably clipped the walls again, causing more burning for the ghost to contend with- She grinded her teeth beyond a mortal breaking point whilst making as little noise as possible. She started to breathe heavily just under Bando's hearing, and he lowered more clips inside with the same result. Bearing it no more she darted out of the shack and fell onto her side screaming, tears welling up along with not a little fear for herself. Aside each burning pain ravaging her soul, she reckoned that if he was too careless with each hot implement then the wound wouldn't heal _at all,_ and the rest of her life would be condemned to walking around with a bullseye under her tits. She chomped back down on her shirt and tried to focus on anything to take her mind off it, but kept on finding visions of herself on fire in Kohta's embrace. She was suffering an agony almost rivalling the one she'd been holding in her mind since that day on the train- a lifetime ago.

Twenty minutes later and the door finally swung open. Bando collapsed to the ground bare-chested, sweat ravaging his every being.  
"It's finished. Fuckin' hell, I need a drink."  
Bando crawled over to the river and buried his face straight in there, welcoming the cooling sensation like ice-cream to a child. Letting go of her immediate nightmares at last, Lucy cautiously approached her body and observed that under the breast there was a large pad in place, a bandage on top circling her torso and another over her shoulder, just to be safe. She reached her ghostly hand on top of it to possibly feel the way, and felt a large metal plate on top of it.  
"_He did it. He actually did it."_

Well, not quite. She was still comatose, and that was another challenge in itself. Having had his fill, Bando returned inside.  
"Don't know if you're in here or not, but I pulled it off. I don't know if you're going to wake up at all any time soon, but you are definitely going to need proper medical attention. That bullshit was hard to pull off but by no means is it permanent. If you do wake up you can't afford to rush around at all or the plate may come loose. I've tied those hot hooks up as best as I can but no guarantees."  
Bando looked like he was going to faint, but he continued-  
"You know, it's funny. I spent my entire life looking for the big fat kill, but it never came. I joined up for the army when I was 18 but they told me I was too fucked up in the head to have the responsibility of leading other people, or dealing with how to be responsible with killing. Now I kinda see their point. Any dumb shit can take a life and make a life, but mending it needs balls of iron. I'm not sure I could do that."  
"You did quite well there." Lucy tried to complement him.  
"But for a living? I don't know. I just don't know. There's also the matter of severing my ties with the assholes that want you either in the ground or up the duff in the first place."  
"'_Up the duff?_' Explain, Bando." He'd gotten her attention at last.  
"It's his big plan, the bastard wouldn't shut up about it. He wants to be the future father of a generation of horn-heads and he needs you to do it."  
"Now you say that, I remember his son saying that as well."  
"You knew his son?"  
"He… tried to shaft me of his own accord."  
"Did he survive?" Bando asked with a broad grin. Lucy faux-nervously started whistling. He laughed hard.  
"I bet he used sleeping drugs, eh? you'd think chocolates would be enough!"  
She couldn't help but to join in. Suddenly, a phone started to ring. Bando reached inside his pants to find out who it was.  
"Speak of the devil and he shall appear… One minute. If you wake up, hang on."

He left Lucy inside, shutting the door behind him. Lucy's ear was pressed up against the door. Bando cancelled his jolly tone suddenly, so she decided it was too serious to interlope. She then returned to her body, just wondering how the hell she actually _was_ going to wake up.  
"_Hard part's over? Hard part's only just begun, Kaede."_

* * *

_**NEXT: **When presented with impossible choices and fearful regrets, someone has to take matters in their own hands._


	12. War, Liars and Dragons' Fire

**DISCLAIMER: **Lack of feedback aside, that was a hard chapter to write. But believe it or not, this one was even harder although I knew what I had in mind.

Finally reaching the gateposts of hell, Kensuke Kurama checks his suit and tie before ringing the bell for service. However, he turns back to find a familiar figure sporting a lasso.

* * *

**CHAPTER TWELVE**

Kurama continued his journey into the abyss in front of a shocked Nana.  
"Hiromi's death sent me to hell. I had no reason to feel anything but disgust about what I'd done to her and so many people. I'd stopped thinking anything good could come of my actions, and that I'd just become the Director's tool to murder and hunt down anybody with horns, no matter if they were good or bad. But there were times I thought I could fight against him, to take the good road"  
"Like when?" Nana asked.  
"When you were three years old, we found Lucy. Rumours of a serial killer had spread many years before you were born, and at their peak there was a massacre during a festival in which 6 people were slaughtered by a 10-year-old girl with horns, and another two were butchered on a train later that night. For 5 years after that, nothing at all happened bar a couple of urban tales. Then we got lucky- a warehouse security guard had tipped us off towards a couple of young girls hiding out there. We took a fleet of security there and found Lucy with who we thought was another Diclonius. Lucy fought us back throwing crates at the police, but…"  
"Papa?"  
"But… her friend was shot in the crossfire. Turns out she was just a normal human girl who'd made friends with her." Kurama wiped his eyes.  
"Lucy gave herself up without a fight provided we saved her friend's life, but for all I knew she was dead at the scene. I waited by her bedside hoping for her to wake up, but I've no idea what we'd have done with her if she had. The Director made me tell Lucy but I guess I owed it to her to tell her anyway."  
"How'd she take it, dare I ask?" Nana interrupted.  
"She swore to kill everybody I ever loved until I was all alone. Little point in telling her that I was already alone, I guess."

Nana looked him right in the eyes. "Not for long, right?"  
"Everybody I knew or cared about was gone and all that was left was Lucy who wanted to see me suffer, and the Director who was willing to sit back and gloat. So I became just an extension of his sick fantasies, watching Diclonius after Diclonius put through things they should never have gone through in his name. They all hurt, they all suffered, and they all asked why this was happening, but I said nothing. Nobody said anything, and I became swallowed up. I became the monster we were telling the world these people with horns were."  
Nana started shaking one of her vectors like a fist. "You're not, Papa."  
"Yes, I am Nana. Just another monster."  
"Shut up. I won't hear you say that. You loved me."  
_"I pitied you."_  
That shocked Nana to the core.  
"Not long after Lucy's capture I first saw you in the cannonball chamber, the same place as Chigusa. You were being hit with balls at far higher speeds than she had to bear, and I didn't even think to stop them, not after what happened last time. I lied to you telling you that things were going to be okay, you were being brave and you were doing well to last this long. It was all… _bullshit_. All of it."  
"But what about when you let me out? When you wanted me to hunt Lucy? You had faith in me then, didn't you?" Nana asked. Kurama turned his head away from her. The thought _"I see. If you're not willing to be proud of that, then…"_ ran through Nana's head.  
No more tears, not for this whelp.

"Out… fucking… side." Nana barked. She got up off the toilet and unblocked the door. Exiting, she found that Yuka was listening in, and she had quite a shock to see Nana floating above the floor, just like… a ghost. Nana barged past Yuka on the way to the bedroom, lightly pushing her aside with a vector. She re-entered the bedroom and gathered up her limbs from the bed, re-attaching them. Walking out, Yuka confronted her.  
"What the hell is going on?" she asked.  
"I've got some things to get off my chest" Nana replied. "I've been lied to." Not wanting to hurt her adoptive mother any more, Nana preferred to hand-jump the rail down onto the stairs, and stroll out of the front door. Yuka was about to give chase, when she saw a blur in front of her walking away. For a second she swore she could hear a man crying.

Outside, the rain came down in a ferocious torrent. Nana was standing outside facing the front door, and the apparition (which Yuka could now _clearly_ make out in the rainfall) was facing her. Nana looked behind her to see Yuka standing there shocked.  
"Get Wanta inside. He'll catch a cold." Nana said in a low boom. Yuka complied, scared almost stiff. Nana then returned her gaze towards Kurama, to address the biggest insult she'd ever had.  
"Bullshit was it, my good Doctor Kurama? Bullshit that I endured 6 long years of nightmares? Cannonballs to my face, my body and my arms? Being sealed in water-tight chambers until my heart stopped, then having shocks run through me? Having a mask over my head and being run through a room full of sharp wires? Spending half a day being cut open somehow, and sleeping with my blood running down to my ankles, without even the dignity of so much as a bed being afforded me? Being told that I will grow old soon? Being told that I was a monster, being told that I was here purely to murder and destroy?" She then donned a mocking tone- "_Doctor, dear doctor, would you prescribe any of the above under that sweet name of 'bullshit' in good faith?"_

Nana then turned around to face a mortified Yuka, and started to whimper in the dawn rain. She had no idea whatsoever about the true business that happened in this _facility_ Nana blithely referred to as "home". Before she could react, however, Nana looked her dead in the eyes, gave her a wink and mouthed the words "Do nothing." Turning back towards her 'tormentor', Nana slumped to her knees and continued to whimper. Kurama made no attempt to comfort her, instead falling on _his_ knees, beginning to cry. Nana's whimpers grew louder for a few second, drowning out Kurama's genuine tears… and turned to laughter. Her head darted up to look at his face.  
"No, what's bullshit is the notion of you continuing to suffer now. _You enjoy this._"

"… What?" was all he could say.  
"Why else do you persist in refusing to see the good things that you've done as good things, preferring to focus on the pain? You sound as if you accept the bad things that have happened to you as if you deserve them, as if you _worked towards them_. I bet you figured out what Chigusa did to you long before Mariko was born, perhaps even before Omori had his kid. Why, the discovery of how us _monsters_ continue to breed must have been the highlight of your career, you fucking snake."  
"That's not true, Nana!"  
Nana was now bullish in her stride. "OF COURSE IT'S TRUE! Like either an idiot or a genius you stood back and watched, writing in your diary some sick little tale of how you'll have to report –_with horror, I might add_- that after all this time his child would have to be killed for the glory of The Director! Yes! In his majesty, he would pat you on your head and feed you with another yummy bone – lord knows where he gets them from, of course!"  
Kurama looked at his immediate tormentor with complete and utter disgust. His fists were shaking.  
"But that's not the real prize is it? What, may I ask, would be even better than telling your best friend the fate of his own child?" Nana covered her own face as if swirling a cape over her mouth.  
"… **telling your own wife the same thing."**

Yuka couldn't tell who was more shocked out of herself and whoever Nana was addressing.  
"Oh, excuse me for one second." Nana turned behind to address Yuka.  
"Mommy, dear, I am so rude. I would like to introduce you to the man wilfully responsible for the pain and suffering of (**enunciating**) Hundreds of Proud Parents to feed his bloated nightmares, and the self-proclaimed reason for sweet little Nyu's well-hidden pledge to massacre the whole of humanity- Dr. Kurama. My beloved Pap.."  
Her voice was cut out with a fist to the mouth. It wasn't Yuka's.

Nana flew into the hallway, hitting the wall behind the inner door. Yuka held her hands to her mouth and bit on her fingernails. Nana turned towards her and spat out blood over her sodden coat and naked body.  
"Hehehe, it's just another day for me. Best get outta here Mom, this fight is going to be a Cu.." _thwack._ Right in the guts. Nana shrieked and spat more blood out, falling onto her front. Crawling towards the front door, she was suddenly lifted violently and hurled out into the rain. Yuka looked forward, petrified, to find that silhouette with the fire of hell in his eyes marching towards Nana. She dared not interfere lest she got caught in the fury of either of them.  
"Beat up an innocent little girl would you, Papa?" Nana cried, redundantly.  
"I've never MET an innocent little girl" the demon roared, followed by a swift boot to Nana's ribs that hoisted her almost eight feet into the morning air. Crashing to the ground, her false limbs fell off- the pain had momentarily rendered her vectors mute. Yuka rushed forward in order to stop this madness but caught some sort of fist into her own abdomen, and she fell back down in pain. This brought Kohta running down the stairs to the surreal sight of Yuka clutching her guts, Nana naked and bleeding on the floor and the outline of a man standing over her.  
"Kohta, stay back! This doesn't concern you!" Nana yelled.  
"What the HELL is going on?" Kohta was furious.  
"Discipline, that's what." Kurama roared. "Get the woman outta here, I have to teach this little _monster_ some manners."  
He then picked Nana up by the shoulders and bent her over his transparent knee.  
"Pardon the cliché, but this is going to hurt me a lot more…" he started  
"LIAR!" was all Nana could yelp, in tears.  
"… alright, I'll give you that." Kurama sneered. He then started administering the obvious parental judgement onto Nana's buttocks, time and again.

"I brought you from the depths of hell, Nana. I looked into your eyes and knew of the hell you were going to, asking why it happened to you time and again. I took pity on you because I've seen it all before." Her butt was turning sore by the second as he orated, and she could speak no more except in pain. He stopped for a moment, then continued slapping her.  
"Dozens of little girls, dozens of deaths, dozens of unanswered questions. But with you, I could take no more. I did not answer your questions, but I did the next best thing. I told you it would be _fine._ I told you to be _brave._ I told you that you were a good _girl_. I had _faith_ that you wouldn't go insane and start _killing_ like Lucy. I _gave _you something _to look forward to._ I thought that this one good deed would _redeem_ me." He raised his hand higher to apply a slap with more authority, but Nana looked right back up at him in his furious eyes.  
"**IT _SHOULD_ HAVE. BUT YOU WERE _TOO STUPID _TO LET IT!**" she cried, hoarse with pain. Nana then dropped to the ground, onto her back from Kurama's knee. Kurama was instantly aghast.

"Papa, right here, right now, I will admit that you saved my life from madness. But why the hell won't you admit yourself the same thing?!?!?"  
He looked at his hands, then at Nana. Despite the physical pain that could rival a day back at the facility, her mind was never more resolute.  
"That… was… all…" he began to speak.  
"Bullshit, Papa" Nana said with a wry smile. "It hurt me far more to do that than you ever could, but someone had to make you see what you've done. Even if what you say was _true_ about pitying poor, pathetic little me; even if you didn't say those things because you loved me at first, even if you were there for the wrong reasons, Papa, you were still there for me when it mattered. I bless the day I met you, Papa. You convinced me I wasn't a monster, you told me I was a _somebody_."

Regaining her vectors as the pain faded, she picked up her falsies and put them back on. Kurama's eyes were full of fresh tears.  
"Nana… I… I'm…."  
"NO! Do not say that. Do not ever be sorry to me again. You did what was right, you did what was proud. But then again, I'm not the only person you have to make up to, am I?"

---

Somewhere in the high trees opposite, the solider who was the only other witness to this affair radioed into his superiors-  
"Confirming the presence of Number Seven alongside two human witnesses. Secure now, or await instruction from Mr. Director?"

* * *

**NEXT:** Hiromi realizes - to a complete lack of surprise – it really was nothing personal. 


	13. Life's a piece of shit

**DISCLAIMER:** I still don't own Elfen Lied or any of its characters.

Mariko Kurama, 5 going on 50, still has the arduous task of trying to convince her loving mother that her Daddy did nothing wrong by her. Other than locking her away for 5 years and blowing her up with enough explosives to clear a bridge apart.

* * *

**CHAPTER THIRTEEN**

Hiromi watched bemused as killer hugged victim in the rain-soaked forest. In many ways, the lack of anger was certainly a surprise- surely it would be more natural to be just _a little_ angry with the person responsible for ending your life, even if she was a 5-year-old child? Even if she bore witness to Mariko's heart-wrenching, horrific confession?  
"Mariko, I'm going to put you down now, okay?" Saito stated, then placed Mariko onto the wet floor. Mariko looked up at her with a smile trying to force its way through. Making things just a little more straightforward, Hiromi broke the ice-  
"First things first, miss..?"  
"Saito."  
"Miss Saito. You were playing mother to my daughter, right?"  
"Yeah."  
"And Mariko killed you when you let her out?"  
"Yes. I was sliced in half, and thrown up through a window into a control room. I was wondering how this could happen for a moment, but I heard screams from down below, and I found out that I'd landed on the main console, so I reached out to trigger one of the bombs. Then I fell down off the console, knew I'd messed things up somehow, and blacked out."  
"YOU blew my arm off?" Mariko asked with genuine surprise.  
"Yeah."  
"That hurt me, you fool! Take a look!" Mariko showed her the scar.  
"That's nothing, look at _this!_" Saito said, opening her jacket and lifting up her shirt. The scar was twice the size and ran all the way around her belly and her back. "You did that!"  
"Ewww, that's gross!" was all Mariko could say. Hiromi thought along the same lines, but then the more important detail came up in her brain- the bombs.

"Can you just explain to me what bombs we're talking about? Mariko knew about those, so would you mind telling _me_?" Hiromi got somewhat irked.  
"Mariko grew up to be an exceptional Diclonius…"  
"Di-what?"  
"_Diclonius_. That's Mariko's _species._ They're the same as human beings except for the horns and the... arms. We call them Vectors, you see. They're not mainly used as weapons but function in that role exceptionally- they can cut through steel like melted butter. Anyway, Mariko turned out to be such a strong breed of Diclonius we had real trouble trying to keep her held down…" guilt set into Saito's voice- "we had no way of knowing how violent Mariko would get so when she started developing vectors in such untold quantities we implanted explosives as a countermeasure."  
With undisguised anger, Hiromi asked "Did my husband know about this?"  
"Dr. Kurama? Yes, he consented."  
Mariko could tell her mother was about to have a fit, so she interrupted- "Mommy, please, listen to me. That's what I'm trying to say. I didn't know where to stop after I'd hit her, and if she hadn't have hurt me I don't know what I'd have done."

Hiromi was hysterical. "But you're only 5! You're not supposed to know things like that! You're supposed to be nice and sweet and cute and innocent, and you're a bigger wreck than I am! What about when I found you out in the road, what happened there?"  
"I saw lots of people I'd hurt out to get me. You were one of them, Mommy."  
"WHAT?!? You… would… have…"  
"I _could_ have. I don't know what I would have done, not with all these… things. Let me tell you something Mommy – Daddy took this badly as well. He hated that he had to lock me up for all that time, but I told him that he didn't want anybody to hurt me. He believed it, and he cheered up. But thinking about it, he locked me away because he didn't want _me_ to hurt anybody. And once I got out… I couldn't help it. I didn't mean to hurt anyone, not Miss Saito, not Nana, not…"  
"Who's Nana?"  
"_Oh you had to say it!"_ Mariko's brain screamed. She mouthed a swearword.

"You mean Number Seven, Mariko? What happened?" Saito conveniently chimed in.  
"I'm sorry, who's this?"  
Saito could tell that Mariko was _really_ struggling to maintain her composure, so she put her hands on her shoulder and took over the narration-  
"You know how I adopted Mariko and acted like a mother to her?"  
"Yes"  
"About 2 years after we took Mariko in, Dr. Kurama adopted another one of our experiments as his daughter."  
"Experiments? Exactly how many girls are we talking about here?" Hiromi quizzed.  
"The last I heard we had about 50. Mariko was #35, and by far she's the strongest. Nana was… a special case in that she showed no anger or hatred towards humans in any way, not even with what we were doing to her."  
Hiromi looked them both dead in the eyes, and she could tell she _definitely_ didn't want to go there. "So you're saying Kensuke took her on out of pity?"  
"Pretty much, yeah. But… he came to care for her quite a lot. They let her out a couple of weeks ago to hunt down a wild Diclonius called Lucy, and she caught up with her at the yard… they had a fight."  
"And Nana lost, right?"  
"She had her limbs sliced off clean."  
"_Fuck me!"_ Hiromi blurted out, and immediately covered her mouth. What struck her even more was that Mariko had no look of disgust on her face whatsoever, almost one of a child hearing a war story from some kindly old solider.

"Dr. Kurama arrived on the scene to rescue her from certain death, and she was in a bad way when they brought her back to the facility. There was a small chance we could have operated to re-attach the limbs as they'd only been severed for about 20 minutes, but Director Kakuzawa pretty much ordered the Doctor to… dispose of her."  
"And did he?"  
"Absolutely not!" Mariko cried, cheerfully.  
"It would appear that way", Saito chimed in. "About an hour later or so, I saw Dr. Kurama leaving the operating theatre carrying a large pod with an oxygen tank attached to it. Looks to me like he'd been shoved too many times and he was going to shove back at him." Now it was Hiromi's turn to smile, at long last.  
"So, Mariko, what did you try to do to Nana?" Saito had to ask.  
"… you can guess." _Back came the guilt_.  
"You tried to kill her?" the smile from Hiromi shattered just as quick as it arrived.  
"Twice. They let me out so that _I_ could hunt down Lucy as well, but Nana showed up and we… got into a fight. Pretty one-sided as well, but she'd found a way to shut my other arms off, and she got away. The other time was last night, when I met Dad for the first time…" Mariko looked down to the ground.  
"Please, continue. Be strong, Mariko" her mother said.  
"As soon as I figured out who he was… he held a gun to my face." – another slap in the face for Hiromi to hear – "I got mad at him for it, but he told me he had to kill me. Nana spoke up and called him Papa, and that set me off. I was so mad at daddy for that, so I grabbed her by the throat and started punching her. I asked him if he'd get upset if I killed her, and he dropped the gun. That I couldn't take. He really did love her over me, and there was nothing I could do about it. I let her go, and then he went to take me in his arms. We walked away and down onto the bridge, and… and…" she trailed off, weeping.

Hiromi filled in the gap. "You died."  
"We died. Not long after we woke up Daddy was crying hard, saying sorry again and again. I kept on saying it was OK. I was just glad to meet him after all this time."  
Hiromi was choking back the tears. To see her daughter being so strong was no less un-natural as everything else about her body. She embraced Mariko, and began to speak into her ear-  
"When you were born, Daddy told me he had to kill you just because you had horns on your head. I didn't know about all this other shit with the arms and stuff, I was just mad at him for even thinking like that. He was so cold, like he'd done this… how many, Saito?"  
Saito paled. "How many other babies did he… hundreds. But it wasn't just him, I swear. Everybody was told to take a small handful for experiments and dispose of the rest."  
"… the lucky ones." Hiromi found herself saying. "I fainted and I got hurt, Mariko. Late that night he tried to kill you again, but…"  
"Mommy, he told me. He told me you died in his arms, and I don't wanna think different." Mariko responded. She then stood up in front of Hiromi.  
"I wasn't meant to be here _at all_. But I grew up, I messed up and even now like this, I learned from it. Hundreds of little girls like me, hundreds of assholes wanting to tear up people just for fun. Except one, Mommy. Except Nana. I don't know her at all, and I tried to kill her without wanting to know. But she's alive, and she deserves it. And it's down to Daddy because just once he said 'no' to this bad man who calls himself a Director."

"Mariko, stop talking like that!" Saito snapped. "You make it sound like you were screwed from the day you were born!"  
"And while we're on the subject, any idea _why_ she was born like that at all?" Hiromi asked.  
Saito spoke right from the instruction manual - "I was hoping you'd get to that. As I say, the vectors aren't properly weapons, they're actually a Diclonius' primary reproductive organs. By penetrating a human male's pineal gland they spread some sort of seed that filters its way down to the man's… organs, which then affects their sperm."  
"So you're saying that Kensuke was _infected?_"  
"Yep."  
"And that any other kids we had would have… yeesh." Hiromi turned her head away. "I had a _caesarian_ giving birth to Mariko so I couldn't have had any more even if I wanted to."  
"Sorry to hear that" Saito condoled. "But as you say, any other children you would have gave birth to would have been _silpelits_ as well."  
"What?"  
"Oh, that's the other thing. Mariko is the only third-generation Diclonius we know of right now, that is one that was born of an infection by one born of an infection. Diclonii born of that are called _silpelits_, and they can't breed like normal humans. First-generation Diclonii that can both infect with vectors and have children the normal way are very rare indeed. In fact the only one we know of is… Lucy."  
"And where is she, right now?" Hiromi asked.  
"Dead. Guards killed her last night." Mariko replied.  
"Sheeesh" was all Hiromi could say. "How did Kensuke get infected in the first place?"  
"About a year before Mariko was born we'd had an incident with Experiment Number Three. We were doing a routine test on the strength of her vectors, and she was in a lot of pain. Dr. Kurama begged us to stop because she was suffering, but she was bluffing- she broke loose and killed 3 guards, before infecting Dr. Kurama and Dr. Omori. Dr. Kakuzawa, the director's son, shot her in the head before she could get away."  
"Double-sheeesh."

Hiromi looked towards the sky. The rain was trying to die off a little bit, but it offered her no real way of letting her think about what happened. She chose to sit down with her back to one of the trees, and then she ran her fingers through her hair. Mariko approached her and sat down next to her, unsure of what to say next. Hiromi looked at her, then at Saito, then at the air again. The silence certainly wasn't comfortable, but it was welcome.  
"How are you feeling, Mommy?" Mariko broke it.  
"I don't know, baby. I've just found out my family is a murderer, a mass-murderer and a quadriplegic, my plans to be happy were doomed from the start thanks to some psycho, my daughter's told me of a living nightmare before she could even spell that word, and on top of all that I've been both proud and disgusted of my husband more times than I could count. Oh, and we're all dead as well, best not forget that. It's… just _not fair_."  
"Not fair, Mommy?"  
"It's not fair for you to write your life off like that. You weren't given the chance to do anything. You've never been drunk for 3 days on end. You've never fallen in love with 6 boys in a month. You've never been to a music gig and lose your hearing for a week. You've never made love to a man on horseback. You've never farted so hard it split your pants. You've never seen a man tied naked to the back of a bus in broad daylight. You've never played a piano. You've never sped down a road fast enough to make your nose bleed. It's things like that Mariko. Things that make you feel good about life. You were never allowed to have them even if you wanted them, and it stinks."

"Mommy… what's to stop us doing things now?"  
"Huh?"  
"My life was set up without any say from me. My death has no such burden. Besides, I've got you, haven't I? I'll have Daddy soon enough, he'll be coming here…"  
This excited her mother."When?"  
"He went to see Nana, to see if she's OK. He should be along by now."  
Hiromi was happy hearing that. "… then let's not waste another second. Let's go home." They both got to their feet. Hiromi turned to Saito, and took her by the hands.  
"Miss Saito, Thank you from the bottom of my heart for being there for my daughter. I can't thank you enough."  
Mariko ran and grabbed Saito by the legs, hugging them. "Without you I'd have been a monster. Thanks to you I'm merely an asshole."  
Saito smiled. "I don't regret this at all. You're a wonderful little girl. Run along now, he could be waiting for you right now."  
Mother and daughter departed hand in hand. Saito looked upwards and tears started forming. After a few moments, her friend arrived from the hillside.  
"Are you alright, Miss Saito? You've been a long time." Sobbing, Saito turned back towards her.  
"Miss Kisaragi, I'm fine- my killer's just made up with me. I hope yours gets the chance to make up with you."

Hiromi and Mariko walked back to the yard. The rain still remained but far less than earlier. By now they'd had the attention of the whole graveyard.  
"This is Mariko, my daughter. She's learned too much and died too soon, so give her a break alright?"  
The crowd fizzled out and returned to talking to each other. Hiromi returned Mariko to her chair, and took a seat next to her own headstone to wait for Kensuke.

They didn't have to wait long.

They saw a man climbing up the stone steps to the top. He took a breath, adjusted his coat and tie, and turned towards the grave.  
"_Here we go,"_ both Kensuke and Hiromi thought independently. She got up from her seat and walked slowly towards her husband in measured steps. He followed, and the crowd watched as if expecting either a fairytale re-union or a western-style showdown.  
Hiromi got to two paces in front of Kensuke, hauled her arm back and slapped the taste out of his mouth, drawing a natural gasp from everyone in sight. Kensuke didn't react at all- he'd expected at least that, after all this time.  
Even if she was putting it on for show, her anger was both natural and fierce.

"I hope you're proud of what you've done, you bastard!"  
"… _Yes, Hiromi. I am._"

* * *

**NEXT: **Then it comes to be that the soothing light at the end of your tunnel was just a freight train coming your way... or was it? 


	14. On this day I see clearly

**DISCLAIMER: **Me no own Elfen Lied. Lynn Okamoto no sue, pretty please.

It's time for our unlikely couple to make their minds up as to whether or not the infinite struggle to attain a certain status is capable of holding down a sudden, irresistible urge to neuter that struggle for the common good. There's also a little more swearing than usual, so get used to it.

* * *

**CHAPTER FOURTEEN **

Bando left the shack with the mobile phone in his hand. Compared to the near-miracle he'd achieved inside, one insidious little phone call would be cake. Upon inspection, however, he found out this was Director Kakuzawa's business cellphone. He tilted his head, wondering whether or not this was going to be a farewell call or an 'or-else' call.

"Hello… How are ya doing? shall I just say 'no' and get it over with?... do I sound like I give a good fuck?... haha, are the papers out already? I hope they got a good picture, that's the last you're seeing of my ass… I'm done with your bullshit… That's a good imagination you've got there, I wonder when your brain farted that one… You absolute pussy. Lay a finger on him and you'll be joining him." Bando quickly found out that '_Or-else'_ it was.  
"And where do I come in?... … what if she refuses?... I see… Fuck you as well."

Bando hung up on the phone the angriest he'd been in his life. _How the hell could he have known?_ He sat on the grass with his face in his hands. Any other day he'd have figured the sudden need to piss all over work he'd broken every bone achieving was the nature of the game he was playing. But not today. He'd summoned every ounce of hung-over concentration he could muster to defy his one calling in life, and now he was forced back into the business at hand by his other weak-point, one he'd not even told his employers. He was now faced with a question as to whichever course of action he'd regret the most – to choose the enemy he'd known or the enemy he'd just made.

The other question of the day lay inside the ghost of Lucy back in the hut. In what could be described as so-far the best mood she'd been in since the fight on the bridge, she pensively led back in the chair wondering exactly what it took to rise from the depths. The only obvious clue to a trained eye that would reveal she wasn't dead was the sweat beginning to muster on her skin. Without first-hand feeling anymore due to her current other-worldly status, Lucy would have to reason that the heat trapped by the morning rain-clouds was amplified by the woods in which the shack was located, a judgement affirmed by Bando's gorgeous sun-kissed skin…  
_"Wait one second. Did I just think…ooh yes, I did."_ Lucy's thoughts betrayed her, and she snapped back into focus. Standing over herself, she could see that most of the sweat was concentrated on her forehead over the scarring shrapnel wound, and her corresponding head smarted a little as a result. She started to exhibit the old First Sign Of Madness-

"Okay, assuming he's right and I'm really _not_ dead, I've become separated from my body. I wonder if simply by stepping back in again I'd become whole, or if it'll take something other than that. I just want to check something myself though…"  
Lucy reached in over the sealed wound, through one plate, the shaft and through the second plate precariously attached to her ribs. Her hand passed through the other side by accident, so she backed up a little.  
"I managed to douse the flame by myself, and I felt that plate just now, so if I concentrate really hard, I can actually touch it. Deep breath, Kaede, here goes nothing…"  
Focusing on her fingers, she touched her own beating heart.

Both Lucys gasped, then separated. _Jackpot._

The ghost version recoiled with her own heartbeat doubled by the sudden intrusion. It was not painful by any stretch as she was particularly careful- but the rush she felt was noted. She'd rounded the last turn, and the finish line was in sight. She'd noticed that Bando had fallen silent outside, and figured that whatever was said to him on the telephone had been far too urgent to ignore.  
"The time to get scared is over" was her last thought before taking the plunge. Climbing onto the table she looked her body right in the face, shot it a wink and an honest smile, and assumed a similar position on her back.

Bando hadn't found an answer to his own conundrum just yet, but he'd decided to think it over relieving himself in the bushes near the tree-line. Scanning the scene, he had to be sure that Kakuzawa wasn't going to go back on his word either, and – more to the point – given how he'd addressed the despot on the telephone, whether or not either he or Kakuzawa actually had a reason to keep their word.  
The rain having ran its course, he took a deep smell of the damp morning air… and discovered that the Director's insurance had arrived.  
Instinct kicking in, he didn't need to see where they were to know that trouble was on the way in force. Quickly wiping his weapon off and re-holstering it, he flattened out onto his belly and crawled under the minimal gap he'd fashioned under the shack. He'd built it with that purpose clearly in mind, so that he'd avoid having to be in the clearing any more than necessary in a pinch. This sort of pinch.  
_"Good job, B"_ he thought as he made his way out underneath the hut.

Lucy's hands reached inside herself and – with Kohta's face looking down on her – she pressed on her heart.

She then found herself falling a mile into the sea, head-first. A familiar pain running down the left side of her face, she hit the water with a speed similar to the bullet, the remnants of her accursed helmet falling in with her. She'd been here before, except now she was _wide_ awake through it. The other difference was that instead of floating, she was sinking like a rock. Holding her breath out of sheer guts she took a look around the floor of the ocean upon landing. Nothing in sight, so far so good. She then felt over her naked body to see that everything was in place, and her hands stopped on her skin. For the first time in an age. Smiling a little, she could then tell that she was in danger- she could see dark shapes coming towards her with considerable velocity.

Bando came out under the shack and slowly crouched down, heading up the short steps under the canopy. The small amount of shade it offered would stand no chance if any sniper worth his coin were present, but he had to back up underneath it to be sure.  
"Lucy, are you there? Trouble on its way!" he said without shouting.

Lucy felt a strange tremor in the water that resembled some sort of voice, but she couldn't tell what it was. Of a more urgent concern to her was the shark heading in her general direction.

"Flee or fight?" he asked himself. "With what, exactly? I'm unarmed out here."  
"Flee or fight?" she asked herself. "With what, exactly? I'm unarmed down here, except… No. I don't want to hurt you. My hate is reserved for someone else."  
Her water-mate's lack of empathy was evident in its open mouth bearing down on Lucy. Within seconds she had to make a move or it would all be for nothing yet again. Unsure of the effect of her vectors would have underwater but forced to find that out, she had to put her faith in another boost-jump that won her the sundown fight. Her lower pair latched onto the sandy bed and hoisted her upward, her feet missing the shark's mouth by inches. The beast circled again for another pass, and Lucy figured quickly that even with her natural Diclonius empathy towards the animal kingdom she had to make an immediate – and deadly – exception. The grisly joust resumed with the shark bearing down again. Now, however, Lucy was making a stand. Feet away from the bad ending, She thrust her vectors forward.  
The aim was true, and the red cloud that followed burned its way into Lucy's psyche. Another senseless kill, but one vital for survival. The hulk hit the sea bed with a resonating thump, and thrust Lucy upward, breaking her concentration and forcing her mouth open to swallow some sea-water.

Bando edged towards the door, opened it carefully, shut it then dived to the floor, ready to stay there until the end of time if necessary. He moved his eyes towards the table.  
_"My God, she's breathing!"  
_Lucy gagged on the water and immediately shut off her air supply. This was it. She began swimming upward towards the light, not caring that the speed could damage her in any way.  
"If you wake up, for Christ's sake keep your head down!" Bando said loud enough.  
She barely noticed the sudden reverberation in the water as she torpedoed upwards, vectors flailing in time with her arms. The light overtook everything as she hit the surface with the impact of a thunderbolt.

Her eyes opened. She saw the roof of the shack, and jerked upward, gasping for oxygen with a scream. Bando sprang to his feet and pinned her down to the desk. His free arm went over her mouth to silence her.  
"Lucy, keep down! Snipers are here!"  
Welcome Back, in-fucking-deed. With a wild look, Lucy's eyes darted across the room. She was inside the shack with two windows opened out, and she saw Bando with his arm forcefully placed across her chest.

"I don't know how many are here, but the Director sent them. They want me to take you alive to the Cemetary back in town.  
"B..b..b…Bando?!?" was her first word.  
"They've got two of your friends as hostages. He wants you alive and stripped naked with an apple in your mouth. A candle-light supper just isn't the bastard's style at all."  
"… Kohta? He's got Kohta? I'll tear him to shreds, promise or not!"  
"We can't do jack shit right now, Lucy! At any minute now they'll be bearing down on the hut, and if they don't see me coming out with you tied up any time soon, they're coming in and we're both going back to where you've just come from. And your friends might be joining us as well, if he desires."  
Lucy growled in frustration. "Now we're both set up for the same fall. By the way, I'm fine, thank you very much."  
Bando had to laugh at that. He cautiously felt his way across to the metal plate and gave it a reassuring tap-tap. "As I said, that oughta do for a couple of hours until you get proper treatment. All else fails at least he'd arrange that for you."  
"Just so I can bear the damnation of Mankind _and_ enforce his dominion on my own race? Fuck that, give me a pistol!"  
"You'd do that? You'd throw your life away so that he can't get what he wants? And even then, what about your boyfriend? What's to say Kakuzawa won't ice him anyway?"  
Lucy raised her hands to her face, and started to weep. She'd just flew out of the water and into a bucket of shit.

"Did he mention me by name on the phone?"  
"Yes."  
"Damn it! Kohta will know for certain, and that's damned him for sure!"  
"… are you still fine?"  
Lucy shot him a thunderous look. "That's not funny."  
"I know."  
"In the meantime, if you could do it keeping under the windows, would you be so kind as to pass me my damn clothes?"  
"Huh?... oh yeah, sure. It's best that you get on the floor to change. I'll shut my eyes."  
Bando reached for her brassiere, t-shirt and vest-skirt, and honoured his gentlemanly promise. Lucy quickly scrambled to put her bra back on, having more than a little trouble doing it up. Not having the guts to ask Bando to do it up for her, she left it undone and replaced the rest on top. Once done, she could see that he was still trying not to open his eyes.

The situation was desperate in her view- surrender and be damned to… mate with that horrendous person, or refuse and not only go back to square one but take the few she cared about with her. And she came to the inexplicable realization that Bando had joined that list for saving her life, months of wanting to kill her disregarded after a drunken realization that deep down he respected her more than he hated what she'd done to him. She re-iterated the question in her mind – accept and _get_ fucked, refuse and _be_ fucked.  
She was fucked either way.  
She cast her mind back to the conversation she had with Kohta before they embraced, and she remembered saying that in 5 years the world will be unbearable, regardless of what she tried. And yet felt she had to do something to stop Kakuzawa from accelerating that.

"_I'm so sorry, Kohta, but it just wasn't to be_" she said under her breath, and reached a vector towards her throat, slicing inward at terminal velocity. The implement stopped short. Wide-eyed, she tried again to end her own life, and stopped short again. Now even her own instincts were colluding against her.  
"Why can't I… WHY?" she said, loud enough to alert Bando.  
"What the hell are you doing?" He said.  
With fear, she looked around and noticed that Bando had a gun sticking out of his pants- the Colt. Straddling him, she picked the gun out with a vector, placed it in his hands and brought his arm right up to her temple.

"Pull it."  
"Have you lost your fucking mind, Lucy?"  
"PULL IT, YOU BASTARD! KILL ME!"

* * *

**NEXT:** Hurting from more than pride, Nana stands her ground. 


	15. Siege!

**DISCLAIMER: **A man that sleeps with another man should be stoned…  
It helps, I'm just saying.

Put your feet up, grab your favourite snack and turn on the goggle-box as _Nana Has A Shitty Day_ returns with a mid-season special!

* * *

**CHAPTER FIFTEEN **

"_(cough)_ I think that's two teeth and possibly a rib" Nana commentated whilst trying to maintain her grip on her legs.  
"Aren't you invincible?" Kurama asked, getting to his feet. She followed that up with "No, I'm a loony" and hacked up some more blood along with two left molars. She looked up above and wiped her mouth and nose off, catching her breath. For a pacifist in all but name he had quite the weight behind his fists.  
"Good job this rain's here, but I could do with a _real_ bath."  
"I wonder who the hell gave you such a smart mouth." Kurama admonished.  
"I'll let you into a secret- the real me died on the table when you shot that drug into me. I'm Nana's evil twin."  
"_Oh, the horror_! The 'bones' thing was harsh though."  
Nana backed down. "Sorry, Papa."

Yuka climbed to her feet with Kohta's help, with little damage to show for that _get-lost _punch she suffered.  
"Who hit me, then?"  
Nana bowed her head ashamed. "I wanted to keep you out of it."  
Kohta scratched his head. "What is it with you two? What sort of daughter picks a fight with her dead dad?"  
"He's not my real dad, he adopted me. But like I say he needs to square things more with his real family more than he does with me, and he needs a gut-check like I needed a punch in the face. Alright Papa, I'll level with you."  
She turned to face him, looking upward. He could see that she was still mad at him for partly destroying her illusion that he was an inspiration for courage and guile through a life of insane torture and degradation that had claimed the minds of many a Diclonius before and since her stay at Home.

"You disgusted me something good back there, Papa. I shouldn't have said what I said, but I had to show you that deep down you had a little pride inside that needed to fight out. You know who's at the heart of all this, Papa. He's been telling you that you didn't amount to dirt for so long you started reciting it with passion every day when you woke up. Even if you knew that you held some love for me after a time, you held little thought about how I felt about you. That I can deal with. But what _really_ annoys me, Papa, is that you won't forgive yourself for the hurt you've visited on your own family, and something in your eyes a few minutes ago told me it wouldn't go away even if _they_ forgave you."  
Kurama now understood. The mirror in front of him stared back hard.

Yuka could see the man stood before her having his head bowed. She stepped forward and addressed him- "Dr. Kurama, do you know where they are?"  
"My family? The Graveyard not far from here. I sent my daughter Mariko ahead to find my wife."  
"Go to them. I'm sure that if you've told them a fraction of how you felt they'd understand. But now you have to be strong for everyone."  
"Thank you." Kurama replied, then turned back to Nana.  
"Nana, I'm amazed at you. You've stood up to absolutely everything, even when it looked like you were buckling, and when it looked earlier like you'd lost everyone. You've spent your entire life listening to me while clinging on, and it's about damn time I listened to you."  
"Well said, Papa! I love you with every ounce of being I have, but Mariko and your wife must love you a hundred times that, and even if they're still raw about what you've done you have to face up to it and tell them that you love them despite everything. And mark my words, never let that insidious piece-of-shit Director prey on your mind again. Even if I never see you before my own time runs out I want you to be happy that you saved me above all else. Now you've got a job to do, Doctor, so haul ass!"

Kurama picked her up and kissed her on the forehead. "When your own time runs out? _Here lies Nana, taken from us at the ripe old age of 36._"  
"_Being naughty with her fourth husband then losing control of the plane!_"  
"Hah! At least you could do me a favour and drop that attitude, little lady!"  
"I'll try just for you, Papa!"  
"I love you, Nana. Stay safe."  
"I love you too, Papa. Now go and find them."

He set her down, and bid Kohta and Yuka farewell, turning towards the gate and walking forcefully towards the gate and through the doors. Nana stared after him with a single tear of pride, and – all things with his family considered – would have given anything to call him her real father. Kohta walked towards Nana and put his hand on her shoulder, and had to ask-  
"So, what he did do to his family?"  
"You really want to know?" Nana secretly prayed that she could keep an explanation brief.  
"Yeah."  
"From what I understand, his wife gave birth to a girl with horns like me and Lucy, he tried to kill the baby, his wife died trying to protect her and made him swear not to hurt her. He then locked her away for 5 years. Yesterday on the bridge, do you remember the girl in the wheelchair with the soldiers?"  
"Yes, Nana."  
"That was his daughter. She tried to kill me twice but he stopped her, and they both died in an explosion later on."  
Kohta started to cry a little. "That was just before Nyu left us."  
"Oh my. What happened to her?"  
"I don't know. She wandered towards the bridge…"  
"Perhaps I should have asked Papa, he might have seen her. Too late, I guess. If she's out there, Kohta, she'll be back one day. Alive, I hope."  
Yuka asked "How are you doing, Nana?"  
"It doesn't hurt so much now, but I could do with a soak. Even if it is, what, almost time to wake up let alone time to go to bed."  
"I'll run the water then."

_"Come in, I need authorisation from Mr. Director. What is his decision? If you don't say anything in 5 seconds, I will attempt to secure… … … fine."_  
The soldier's finger reached towards the trigger, certain of his aim on Number Seven's forehead. He pulled back with the words _"**Negative, Wait!**"_ in his ears. That was enough to deviate the barrel slightly to the right, just above her left shoulder.

Nana turned her head and body to leave, and was clipped by the bullet. She screamed, falling to her knees-"AAAAAGH, SHIT!"  
"Nana?" Kohta yelled.  
"I've been shot!"  
"What? By who?" Yuka screeched.  
Nana looked at the small wound and saw the flesh parted at a 50-degree angle. Instinctively she looked up at the trees, and saw a very tiny glint just above the edge of the gate thanks to the sun breaking through.  
"Everybody get inside, NOW! He's in the trees!"

_  
"Minor wounding of target, position compromised. Retreat or maintain position?"_  
**_"Maintain."  
_**_"Understood. Will not get a second shot – repeat, will not get a second shot. Location at large property due East of railway station, possibly a disused public facility."  
_**_"Witnesses?"  
_**_"Unharmed, escorting the target inside. Impossible to secure without storming property."  
_The sniper had messed this one up, and he knew it.

Kohta carried Nana in holding her by her right shoulder while Yuka followed them inside with Nana's left arm, and shut the door. Mayu was stood at the top of the stairs, asking what was going on. Kohta took charge-  
"Someone's trying to kill Nana. Mayu, get the bandages from inside the kitchen cupboard nearest the stove, and turn off all the lights in the house when you're done. Yuka, take Nana into the dining room and rest her on a cushion. Nana, where did you say he was?"  
"Sitting in the trees, just above the gate as you look at it. You can see him from the upstairs toilet. Keep out of sight or he'll shoot. Damn, that stings!"  
"Are your shoulder muscles hurting?"  
Nana moved her left shoulder. "No, I'll be OK. Just keep out of sight!"  
"I think we should get out of here. I'm not sure he's acting on his own" Yuka guessed.  
"You're probably right. But the front door's the only way out unless you like the idea of jumping down the cliff behind the Inn!" Kohta said, worried.

The lights in the house dimmed one-by-one as Yuka kept up the pressure on Nana's wound to stop it from bleeding too hard. She asked Kohta to find some candles, sewing needles and thread from the living room. Nana pushed herself upright against the table and brushed aside Yuka's hand to push down with one of her vectors.  
"I'll hold it with my other arm. That should do for a minute until you get it sewn up."  
Yuka tried to lighten the mood- "If those things could glue stuff together, you pretty much would be invincible."  
"Yeah, and I'd still be a loony." Nana shot back, contending with a shoulder laceration in addition to the beatings meted out by both father & daughter Kurama over the last half a day. "Six years of this and you'd think I'd be used to it by now."  
"The things you mentioned out there really happened?" Yuka hadn't realized she was serious about _that _part.  
"Amongst others, yeah."  
"And he just stood there, and…"  
Nana gave her an evil eye. "I'd rather answer a question relating to how the hell they found me. And I still have no idea. I can't say it was Papa because I'm not sure if ghosts only appear to those they love, or if they can appear as they please. And he's not careless."

Mayu and Kohta arrived with the medical supplies, and soon enough the entire house was in darkness, save a candle-light in the middle of the dining room that provided enough heat to sterilize a sewing needle. Not sure if she could trust her vectors enough to stitch the wound without causing enough pain to null them, Nana left the stitching to Yuka, whose careful practice at shape-cutting that Kohta had ridiculed her for at a certain festival many a moon ago had paid off. It did little to ease Nana's mind though, as the nagging thought that Papa's iron will to cross the heavens to find her lacked more than a little discretion. But Kohta, the blind squirrel that held a worried Mayu in his arms, was about to find the nut.  
"Yuka… I think it's my fault."  
"What makes you say that, Kohta?"  
"Do you remember when I brought Nyu back home after giving her up to Professor Kakuzawa?"  
"Now that I think about it, you had a funny little turn when I mentioned him, and then carried on like nothing happened. But that was one day out of 40."  
"Yuka, I'm serious! The Professor was killed. I found the body along with one of the research staff, and it never got reported…"

Nana pained at this. "So the Professor was either the son or a very close relative of The Director, hence when the assistant placed you at the scene, he happened to get a profile of you from the college registry. Just perfect."  
"Meaning?" Yuka asked the obvious.  
"Meaning even if I _wasn't_ living here, they'd have come here looking for me anyway. And if they had any idea that you knew Lucy, odds are you'd have been in the sniper's sights as a witness anyway."  
"Escape's going to be difficult" Kohta put his brain to use for a change. "Even if you managed to take care of that sniper, inside an hour they'd either pay us a personal visit or block the roads off so we wouldn't get far… the least we can do is to get _you_ out of here, Nana."  
"Where to?" Mayu spoke. "Didn't you say there's no way out of the back of the house?"  
Yuka finished up stitching, then broke the cord off-  
"And where would she go, exactly? We've only got enough money to give her a few nights in a hotel at the most, and college will be impossible as the Police are in on this as well."

Nana's ears caught the sound of dozens of people shouting orders at each other.  
"They're here."  
"So soon?" Yuka fretted.  
"We're out of time. Mayu- they don't know you're here. Get me hidden somewhere."  
"But I can't carry you, you're too heavy!"  
"… Okay."  
Nana plucked off her limbs and placed them underneath the dinner table, covering them up with the cushion she'd been resting on, freaking out the adults even more. "How about now?"  
Mayu tried to carry her, but to no avail. "You eat too much food!"  
"Fine then, I'll walk!" Nana said, irritated. Repeating her earlier trick of using her lower vectors to support her on the floor, she once again had the undivided attention of the household. "Apologies if you are so easily frightened, but you should be more concerned about the police ready to bust down the doors!"  
Mayu led the way out the room. "The bathroom, the bathroom!" Nana followed as quick as possible without damaging the floor, wanting to leave as little evidence of her existence as possible. Kohta and Yuka looked in eachother's eyes.

"This is _really_ screwed up." Yuka said.  
"What are we going to do? We can't deny anything, they've already seen us with her."  
"It doesn't matter, as long as they don't find her!"  
They heard a knocking on the door. Kohta placed his hand on her cheek.  
"If anything else happens, I love you. You've done so much for me I couldn't begin to repay you."  
"I know. And I want Nyu back just as much, even if it means me getting mad at you for no reason."  
"That means a lot, Yuka."  
"So, are you ready for this?"  
"As I'll ever be. I'll get the door."

Kohta walked out, taciturn, and opened the door to be greeted by half a dozen troopers aiming automatic machine-guns at his face. Before he had the chance to finish the phrase "do you have a warrant?" they forced their way into the Inn over his unwilling body. One soldier dragged him back into the dining room, bending him over the table whilst another subjected Yuka to the same treatment. Three others began a sweep of the Inn, in no particular hurry. After restraining their arms, they dragged the pair to meet the eyes of a grey-haired gentleman.  
_"Number Seven is not of our immediate concern. You've been a lot of trouble to me, and I require your services to lure someone else you care about to me."  
_Kohta and Yuka looked at each other for less than half a second, knowing exactly who he was referring to but not wanting to confirm it.  
_"We're taking you to a special place right now. Try anything and we will shoot you instantly, and it doesn't matter as she only needs to think you're alive to come running. So do yourselves a favour and keep it shut."  
_The Director turned towards the guards. _"Gentlemen, we're done. To the graveyard, with haste."_ He took point, followed by Kohta and Yuka along with the rest of the attachment.

Nana and Mayu were left alone in the house, hidden in the bathroom closet.  
"Mayu, did you hear any shots?" Nana had to ask.  
"No. They might have taken Mommy and Daddy with them."  
"_'Mommy and Daddy.'_" Nana bowed her head. This was the closest they'd actually had to a real, proper family who loved and cared them, and she recognized that for Mayu it may be more of a blow to see them gone because Nana wasn't sure that Mayu had had a guardian angel like Papa over her. She asked "Are you that sure they're gone?"

_  
"Mr. Director, Sir!"_ one of the guards asked.  
"What is it?" he said, irritated.  
_"I need to use a latrine, sir."  
_"Can it wait?"  
_"No, sir."  
_"Very well, time is on our side. Leave no evidence if possible."  
_"What if I find Number Seven, sir?"  
_"Eliminate her immediately. Despite her character report, we cannot take the risk."  
_"Roger!"_

"Nana, I'm really scared."  
"So am I. But I'm also surprised."  
"Surprised at what?"  
"They left without finding me, and they were only here for about a minute. No way they'd get scared off, it's like they planned something else."  
"Nana, I have to go pee-pee."  
"_(sighing_) Alright. Be quick, then go hide in your room. And don't pull the flush, I need to go afterwards."

Mayu dashed onto a toilet to relieve herself. The night was enough of a toll on her as it was without seeing Nana hurt and her adoptive parents arrested. She leaped off swiftly for Nana to replace her. Taking a long sigh whilst doing her business, she asked Mayu if she heard where they were taking her. Shaking her head, Mayu went to leave as Nana pulled on the chain, and then the solider returned loudly through the front door.  
Panic set in both of them. They looked at each other, and the flushing toilet that may well betray their presence in the house.  
_"The cupboards, quick!"  
_Mayu returned to her previous spot with Nana desperately clawing at her lower garments with her vectors. Dashing inside, her last step was a little too forceful, cracking the flooring open.

The solider entered the bathroom _just_ as the flush finished, and thought nothing of it. Pulling his pants down whilst giving little thought of taking a seat, he yawned.  
"So _that's_ what it looks like…" Nana whispered, peering out of the door's edge.  
"What?"  
"A boy's… you know."  
"I'd rather not talk about that right now!" Mayu snapped under her breath.  
He sat down on the toilet, and unconsciously subjected the two girls in the cupboards to a 37-second barrage of good ol' #2. Both held their ears and noses but the futility was evident in their watering eyes. Any reaction whatsoever would give them away, so what could pass as a new form of bacteriological warfare had to go unanswered, and lord knows it hurt.

Relenting at long last, the solider wiped off and pulled his pants up. He went to a basin on an adjacent wall to wash his hands, and then he found the suspicious crack outside Nana's locker.  
"Mayu, I think I've been spotted!" Nana whispered.  
"How?"  
"I pushed on the floor too hard!"  
The guard cautiously picked up his gun and approached the suspicious-looking crack. He traced around the outline, and could see that it looked like… _a hand_. He instantly backed up a couple of metres and aimed the gun at Nana's locker.  
"You're in there!" he yelled out, "Come out at once or I will fire!"

Nana knew she'd ran out of time, and had to make the hardest decision in her life. When Mayu made it for her-  
"_Nana, don't!_"  
Instinctively, he aimed his gun at Mayu's locker instead.  
"You there, come out as well!"  
"DON'T YOU HURT HER, YOU BASTARD!"  
Nana _launched_ herself out of the cupboard, vectors aimed forward as fists. They sent the cupboard door right at him and he flew back, dropping the gun. His head hit the cistern of the toilet bowl and he cartwheeled into the empty bath, hitting it skull-first and buckling his neck. Quite a lot of blood came out.

He didn't move.

Nana looked down at him. Her lips trembled.  
_"Papa... what have I done?"_

* * *

**NEXT: **Chaos! 


	16. Hopes and fears

**DISCLAIMER:** I still do not own these characters. This chapter contains a Lime sequence, meaning it features mild/moderate implicit sex, and hence it may be unsuitable for people who are under 14 (brain cells.)

Kurama's broken a promise, and Nana's broken many bones especially in the last 24 hours. But has she broken a duck?

* * *

**CHAPTER SIXTEEN**

"_What the hell? Did he just read me like a book?"_ Hiromi's mind reacted to Kensuke's complete lack of guilt. Surely he couldn't be proud of driving her to the grave, so either he'd expected the slap like it was a mere receipt, or he'd guessed that Mariko's silver tongue had worked and was trying to call her bluff.  
"Hiromi, my love, I would like to explain to you about a wonderful person I've met. But it's quite tricky to explain how I feel right now, and I'm not sure if you're going to like this coming from me… "  
"Try me!" she said, maintaining her apparent anger.  
"Alright, fine. I've done some truly monstrous things that I never explained to you, and I let it bottle up inside for years before and after you left me. I became the demon I tried to say Mariko would be, sick and twisted. I've seen young girls cry for their parents, suffer physical and mental abuse whilst casually tending to paperwork and I let some old bastard tell me I was lucky to be working for him. I've a million things to confess and regret, Hiromi, but if I regret the very worst of them I'd be ashamed of the one good thing I've done in my life."  
"_Don't say it Hiromi, don't spoil this!"_ She thought to herself. She already knew from Mariko, but she wasn't going to deprive herself of some satisfaction. "What do you mean, 'one good thing'?"  
"I saved a girl's soul."  
"Do _tell_."

"One day I was working as usual, filling out reports on tests I'd rather not say about. Then I happened upon a girl being experimented on inside one of our labs. She was screaming and crying in pain and I'd heard it all a million times before, but then she raised her head and looked me in the eyes, and she wouldn't blink them at all. She burned a hole in my brain with the same question they all asked- 'why.' I asked one of my assistants who she was, and she happened to be the sister of an experiment that had escaped a year before Mariko was born…"  
"_Three" _Hiromi mouthed, almost giving it away.  
"Hiromi?"  
"Uhh… Nothing. Continue." She barked.  
"I couldn't help myself, the memory of what happened with you was so strong I did one thing we were sworn never to do- I entered the room. Everyone was yelling and screaming 'Don't do it!' over again through fear, but I walked over to her, patted her on the head and told her to be brave, that it was going to be alright. She smiled at me, and it never left my mind since. I became haunted by this little girl covered in blood and I became glad of it."  
"What was her name?"  
"_Nana." _

-----

Nana stood over the body, tears streaming down her face. Mayu tried to drag her back towards the door but Nana refused to budge.  
"Nana-chan, we _must_ get out of here!"  
"I killed him!"  
"WE HAVE TO GO!"  
"HE'S DEAD! I KILLED HIM!"

Mayu dashed into the dining room to grab Nana's prosthetics from under the table. The girl herself kneeled down over the fallen soldier, feeling the back of his neck- it had bruised badly and was bent slightly to the right of his body, splayed over the side of the shallow bathtub.  
"You were just doing your job. I'm sorry." She whispered to him. "I've become the thing I hoped never to be. The thing a friend of mine was and came to regret. I am a murderer."  
Mayu returned with the limbs.  
"I don't know if the others are coming back for him. Even if that gunman is still there we have to leave right now. Do you want me to get some clothes for you?"  
"No, I'll dress myself." Nana replied, mournfully. They both left the room and returned to their bedroom. Nana grabbed some black clothing from the dresser while Mayu put one some warmer clothes. She looked at the clock- 05:15. The sun began to shine through the window but neither of them was in the mood to appreciate it. In stone silence the looked at each other and hugged through shock and fear. They both missed Mommy and Daddy hard, and didn't know where to find them, or even where to escape to.  
Mayu dashed down the stairs while Nana hand-hopped the rails, landing on the floor feet-first. They turned to get their coats and heard something that frightened them both.

"_Soldier Delta, come in!"_

----

"I pretty much demanded to… adopt Nana as my main experiment, lying about her unusual strength of character. He agreed without too much fuss, I guess he thought I'd forget about Mariko that way. The more I saw her in pain, the more I thought about that smile, and wondered if it was the only time I'd ever see it. I had to be there for her through everything, and I began to realise I loved her, or at least I loved what I thought she'd become if we were allowed to reward her. She never gave up through it all, and about two weeks ago it paid off."  
"What happened?"  
"Another Diclonius escaped, a very dangerous one who was behind a massacre in the Bay area some time ago. We wanted Nana to kill her but she refused, so instead we let her out to find the murderess and get in touch. But she attempted to take the other girl down herself and… she was mutilated."  
The second breaking of the news to Hiromi wasn't much easier to hear. "Kensuke, please."  
"We took her back to the facility, and the Director wanted me to terminate her even though she was harmless before and after the attack. That did it for me- how could anyone want a harmless little girl like her to die even though she was trying her best to impress me? I couldn't let it happen. I went behind his back and gave her some prosthetic limbs, withdrew a good portion of my savings in cash and helped her escape. I told her to get as far away from this whole blood-soaked mess as possible."

Hiromi's face almost betrayed a smile. "What happened to her?" she asked.  
"In a way I shouldn't have let her go on her own. She'd never been free before and she didn't know what to do. Last night I went out to help someone hunt down Lucy, the killer I mentioned…" he froze.  
"_Oh no. Mariko. How do I leave her out of this? Does she already know?"_ panic set in, but Hiromi put a hand on his shoulder.

"Kensuke, I've no idea how hard this is on you, but be strong for me, I beg you!"  
"Hiromi, I have to be honest. The company went behind my back and released another Diclonius to kill her. It was Mariko."  
Hiromi went wide-eyed. The puzzle was complete. Kensuke started to cry.  
"Mariko was quite literally the best we had for the job, but so powerful that she could have been a greater risk to mankind than Lucy. All I saw was a young girl fall from the bridge…"  
"Lucy?"  
"No, Nana. She ran into Mariko then, and again later that night after Mariko had fought Lucy for real. I had to do it, Hiromi. I had to end my daughter's life not for my sake or yours or hers, but because it had to be done. Deep down I hold the belief that one day, humans and Diclonii can co-exist in peace and happiness. Mariko would have butchered that on a whim, so I took it upon myself to end her life and my own."  
Hiromi could have snapped again hearing that, but she thought back to Mariko's attitude towards herself, and mentally she agreed with him. Physically, however, her face still showed thunder.  
"Nana was the first, Hiromi. The first one who never wanted to kill, who just wanted to be _happy_, and she needed that chance. I murdered you, I murdered myself and I murdered Mariko, but if I wish those things had never happened then Nana would never have happened either. But because of those three evil things I've done, one good thing could blossom from them. _So once again, Hiromi, I am proud of what I have done_."

She looked him deep in the eyes. Her face became scarlet, then purple with her fingers digging into her palms. A fire lit up in her eyes that Kensuke could see too clearly. She reared back her hand again but he refused to move or even _flinch._  
She then launched herself at him and wrapped her arms around him, grabbing with all her might. She planted a deep kiss on his mouth for a few seconds. He was quite shocked.

"And so you should be, Kensuke. So you should be."

---

"_Come in, Soldier Delta!"_ the radio repeated.  
Nana looked at Mayu in horrid recognition of what they both suspected would happen. In seconds the troops would be alerted and returning to the house, keen-to-kill.  
"Mayu, get going!"  
"What if the gunman's still there?"  
"I don't know, but if you dash he can't get a good aim!"  
"_Soldier Delta, please respond!"_  
"Can't you block me with your arms?"  
"No, he's using decent ammo! You've got to run for it."  
"I'm too scared!" Mayu was gibbering as Nana tugged on her arm, much like Mayu tried to force Nana moments earlier.  
"_Soldier Delta, if you do not respond we will send additional units! Come in!_"  
"That's why you have to move, Mayu! Please!"  
"I can't... I just can't…"  
"**_Soldier Delta reporting._**"

"WHAT?!" they both said, looking back towards the bathroom.  
"You said he was dead, Nana!"  
"I saw him break his neck!  
** "_Encountered Number Seven, was temporarily incapacitated. Number Seven escaped with an unknown accomplice. _**(groan)** _Have sustained serious neck injury and require attention when I return to the team, over._"**  
The girls heard slow footsteps moving.

"Up the stairs, quick!"  
Nana and Mayu didn't waste another second, dashing whilst Delta made his way back through the house slowly, leaning on the walls to support his fragile neck along with his hands. He was bleeding through his nose and gasping for oxygen.  
"_Do you require assistance to return to the team, over?_"  
** "_Affirmative."_**  
"_Will send two units to support you. Over and out._"  
He staggered to the opposite wall and slumped down on the floor. He reached inside his tunic for a cloth to wipe his face and an inhaler to calm his breathing down. After taking a long drag from his medication, he stared up at the first floor ceiling at nothing in particular, feeling lucky to be alive. _How could a small child hold such power?_  
**_ "IF YOU ARE STUPID ENOUGH TO STILL BE IN THIS HOUSE, DEMON, You've got under 5 minutes to leave. They took the sniper with them!"_** he yelled out with such force it shook the thin paper door leading to the dining room.

His cry was met with immediate silence, followed by footsteps rushing down the stairs. Mayu rushed past the soldier in mad fear with Nana in tow. Nana stopped to look the soldier in the eyes, as if to apologise.  
_** "Go on, goddamn it!"**_ he barked.  
"Where did you take my friends?"  
**_ "The graveyard, due west of here. If you had half a brain you'd stay away."_**  
"Thank you. Sorry about your neck."  
With that, Nana followed Mayu out of the door. He pushed his skull upwards to his left in order to straighten it out and then returned his gaze to the ceiling.  
**_ "…. Uurgh, Shit."_**

Nana and Mayu made for the front door and were confronted by footsteps approaching from the left of the door. Nana shoved Mayu behind the right wall of the front door, and they both backed up against it praying they wouldn't be caught after all this. The door opened, and two soliders sprinted inside the house to reclaim their wounded colleague, with the pair of girls silently gliding back through and jumping into bushes opposite the Inn. Crawling on all-fours for moments, they stopped when they were sure they'd given the troops the slip, and waited a painful eternity for affirmation. It eventually arrived with the two clutching their charge and carefully walking out, and down the stone steps.  
"Damn!" Nana exclaimed  
"What?"  
"What happened to Wanta?"  
"I locked him out the back."  
"Good job, Mayu."  
Nana fell onto her back, letting go of everything for a second. She stared at the dawn sky and shed a thankful tear.  
"I was really afraid I'd killed him", she spoke from the heart.  
"You were protecting me, Nana."  
"I know. But now I'm wondering exactly what I'd do to protect you and everyone else. We've come so far and nearly lost everything on my account."  
"Don't say that! We love you, Nana! We all do."  
Nana looked at Mayu and smiled. "…. That's why I have to stop them. Mayu, please do me a favour."  
"What?"  
"Get back in the house, get Wanta inside and don't leave at all. If nobody's back by tomorrow evening call the police and they'll find you somewhere to stay."  
Mayu hugged Nana's torso with a vengeance. "You're coming back, you stupid girl!" her voice trembled.  
"I hope so, Mayu, I hope so."  
Mayu left, wailing, and returned inside. Nana got her body back together and turned westward, slouching a little. Feeling around, she found that no permanent damage had been caused to her ribcage but her mouth was swollen from Kensuke's first punch.

"_Papa, I didn't do what I thought I'd done, and I hope I won't have to. But I must save them as you saved me."_

---

"Hiromi, I'm really sorry for putting you through this."  
"You were too ashamed to tell me of your work, I know that. But because of that how was I supposed to know about Mariko? How was I to know about anything at all?"  
"I couldn't tell you because I thought it would destroy you."  
"It _did_, you dumb shit!"  
"You know what I mean! I thought that beautiful, carefree young woman I fell in love with back at University would be shattered for good, yet I was too stupid to quit because he'd have told you for sure, and I couldn't take it for you to learn from that ogre."  
"Well it's a damn good job _Mariko_ told me, or I'd be _really _pissed."  
"Yeah, it's…. …. …. She _told_ you?!?!?" - he knew he'd been set up.  
"...Yeah."  
Kensuke himself went scarlet for a moment, and then heard a strange noise laughing from behind Hiromi's headstone. His embarrassment complete, he hung his head down and breathed hard to release the tension in his body.

"I'm not even mad, you know that? I'm just so glad to see you again, even if you despise me for what I did to you."  
Her accusing, sorrowful eyes looked into his.  
"I could never hate you, you beautiful idiot. I just wish you wouldn't set yourself up like this! I mean… would she have killed us? Really?"  
"I don't know. I just don't know. But I was too scared to find out."  
He turned away from her sad gaze for a second, but she put a hand on the back of his head, and brushed his hair from behind his glasses.  
"Don't be ashamed of what you've done, Kensuke! You just said it yourself- because of what you failed to do, something else happened so you could do it when the time came. I just wish we could have been looking at _Mariko_ growing up, instead of… I'm sorry, I'm just being jealous."  
Kensuke placed his arms around her waist and drew her towards his face.  
"Mariko is _still_ growing up, Hiromi. She's just not growing old."

"_YOU'RE MAKING ME SICK!"_ that voice behind the headstone squealed.  
He looked in Mariko's direction and grinned. Hiromi looked back at him, unsure of his intentions. He looked at the grave, then back at her, nodding his head at the grave, and into her eyes with a sly wink.  
"What? HERE? Why, you…"  
He hauled Hiromi up by her butt, and shouted back to Mariko- "Go and play in the forest or something, I've got to… talk to your Mother about something important." He then ran full force (with his wife giggling into his shoulders) and dived into the grave, met by a massive cheer from the onlookers. All Mariko could do was wheel herself away, embarrassed.

---

The team reached the graveyard with the Director and two hostages. They stood at ease by the stone steps waiting for their team-mates to return. Satisfied that everything was going to plan for a change, Kakuzawa radioed in-

"Support teams, have arrived at destination. Everybody form roadblocks on this stretch up to 1200 yards both North and South, with two teams of 6 in either direction between them. She could be hours, she could be minutes. There is a possibility she will be accompanied by Sergeant Bando of the SAT, he is currently wanted for assault against our laboratory staff so he must be apprehended. In any event the female must NOT be harmed in any way, over!"  
"_Copy, leader_" several units responded.  
The Director turned towards the couple to address them.

"Listen to me, you two. Do absolutely nothing and you will not be harmed. We cannot allow you to leave now that you have been exposed to confidential information, but if you co-operate I could find some use for you back at our facility. We could **(addressing Kohta)** always do with clean, hygienic floors, and **(looking at Yuka)** we could damn sure do with some decent coffee."  
She strained towards him but was held back. He shot her a sneer and turned away.  
"Move them into the yard!"

The soliders grabbed Kohta and Yuka, moving them up the stone steps and onto the turf causing a commotion amongst the residents. Out of misplaced instinct many of the ghosts started to run for the cover of their graves, and others noisily dispersed into the forest behind. Hiromi, in throes of passion, threw her head back above turf and opened her eyes to find a large number of troops bundling civilians towards the back of the yard where her grave was. Quickly cancelling all thoughts of romance she jerked Kensuke to stop.  
"Kensuke, something's going on!"  
"What is it?"  
She scrambled to put her clothes back on. "Soldiers, dozens of them!"  
"What?" he said, hauling her off of him and peering above the grass. "They're from the facility! Hide yourself, I'll get Mariko."  
Zipping his pants up he leaped out and dashed towards the woods, finding Mariko not far short.

"What's going on, Daddy?"  
"Soldiers are here! Can you stay out of sight?"  
"How, Daddy?"  
"Will yourself to disappear, concentrate!"  
Her physical form vanished. "Like this?"  
"Yes, good girl! Your Mother's out of sight, let's go!"

They returned to find a number of them guarding Kohta and Yuka behind the central square of greenery, stood waiting silently. "Mariko, do you know these people? I don't have a clue…"  
Mariko focused on Kohta for a second. "I've seen _him,_ Daddy. He was on the bridge yesterday with Nana, then Lucy. I think he's their friend."  
Kakuzawa approached them, confidently strutting around the corner and parking himself idly against someone else's headstone, snickering. "And now… we wait. I have a call to make."  
Kensuke gazed at him with a fury which excelled that during his discipline of Nana earlier. Mariko could see him shudder and growl, and was taken aback- she'd never thought it possible for him to be angry, but this vision transcended even that of an annoyed father wanting to teach his daughter respect.

"Daddy, what's wrong?"  
"Mariko… hold me down. PLEASE hold me down."  
"Why, Daddy?"  
"It's him. The Director."

* * *

**NEXT:** Trapped like rats in a ship that's spinning out of control, Lucy and Bando make split decisions that cannot guarantee the survival of either…. 


	17. Fuel and fire are those that I desire

**DISCLAIMER: **I don't own the characters etc; there's more Lime in this one (and also more violence), so if you are of a particularly nervous disposition… grow a pair and read it anyway.

Lucy's changed her mind more than she's changed her clothes so far, and now that she's aware of Kohta's kidnap can she really be sure that the decision she's about to make is the right one?

* * *

**CHAPTER**** SEVENTEEN**

To be honest, this wasn't the best plausible start to Bando's average day. His miraculous operation removing the bullet buried in Lucy's chest was about to be voided by the woman in question wanting him to put one in her face, sat on his lap whilst practically forcing a gun into his hand.  
"Haven't you learned a thing in the last 6 hours, you dumb bitch?" He asked her in a steady voice. "I heard your pathetic whimpering out there when I was putting the plate inside you. My clumsy hands caused you all sorts of pain, so what the hell stopped you from going mad right there, huh?"  
"Please, just pull the trigger" Lucy didn't want to talk about this.  
"Shut up. It was him. The boy on the beach. You're as nuts about him as you've ever been, what you thought was 'death' ain't changed that at all. You ever want him to see you again?"  
"Bando…"  
"Do. You. Ever. Want. Him. To. See. You. Again?"  
"…. More than ever. But I can't let the Direc.."  
Bando cut her off by bringing his good leg up to his chest and smashing it into Lucy's right breast, releasing her vector grip on his left arm. He then pinned her hips together with both his knees, then leant over her and pointed the gun to her temple himself.  
"Well, tough shit. This is my one fucking ticket out of here, and I'm not gonna let you fuck it up."

----

Two snipers had arrived at the shack's location. One of which watched from the east side while his companion slowly paced north around half a mile to get a clear view of the shack's windows. Both of them watched the inside and saw nothing whatsoever of importance. "Are you sure he's in there?" one radioed to the other.  
"_This is the location we're given._"  
"Radio silence needed?"  
"_Not likely. His file reads 'no fixed abode', hence he's not likely to know we're here from surveillance equipment._"  
"So what's the plan, Captain?"  
"_We wait 90 minutes, then enforce entry. The girl is not to be harmed, and he's wanted on other charges._"  
"Or we can just gib him and sort the paperwork later."  
"_If needs be._"  
"Roger."

----

Lucy was aghast. He'd played her from the beginning, wanting to worm his way out of his impending release by any means necessary- this, however, was an extreme case nobody could have taken the time to plan out for a training exercise, even under test conditions in the relative legal safety of the facility.  
"I got you sorted all out, Lucy. Not that I need to be at this range, but I'm a surgeon with a Colt. Plus, those freak weapons you sport happen to be a little on the noisy side for someone like me with good hearing."  
"I can't believe… even now…" Lucy uttered. She was truly defeated.  
"See? Us Humans aren't all dumb cattle. Now I would judge that when you first attacked me that night those things can cover 2 metres in under 0.4 seconds. With reflexes like mine that's an eternity. Plus, if you were to kill me somehow and make a dash for your life, even assuming they want you unharmed they'll be more than happy to take your knees out. And seeing that if they had any brains they'd be at least half a mile away, odds are you'd be taken down without harming a single one of them."  
"You've really done your work on this one, Bando" Lucy replied, cold as ice. "So, what's next?"  
"… Nothing. We wait. In the mean time, think about the last sentence I said."  
"Huh?!?"

----

The two snipers were still watching the windows of the hut, with a slight distraction caused by the growing sunshine around them. The fresh dew on the grass was most welcome to two men who had been in far worse environments. But pleasant weather wasn't top of the list of priorities.  
"_Mr. Director, sir, we are in position_" One of the snipers radioed in.  
"**Good. Once the Sergeant leaves with the quarry, escort them to the graveyard.**_"_  
"_Roger_."  
His subordinate was a little uneasy about the whole situation, as if it something was missing.  
"Captain?"  
"_Yes?_"  
"Why are we watching both of the windows when surely one of us should be watching the door?"  
"_… Noted. I'll maintain my position, you cross the river and take the door-side._"  
"How deep is the river, sir?_"_  
"_Not very. Those boots are waterproof, aren't they?_"

----

Bando maintained his position over Lucy's prone body. Truth be told, the last sentence he spoke was the only thing that prevented Lucy from butchering him the moment he took his eyes off her, but from now on she was taking _nothing_ for granted anymore. He was far smarter than she took him for even with the remnants of whiskey hammering on his brain, and this was either a double-cross or a treble-cross that – for all she knew – may have been concocted during the operation to remove the bullet. She genuinely couldn't tell, nor could she surmise which would be more favourable- she'd wanted him to kill her, but not like _this._ The only other noticeable thing about this situation is that he hadn't taken his eyes away from hers for well over five minutes.  
"Why are you looking at me like that?" she asked.  
"Like what?"  
"Like I'm a two-pound steak on lettuce."  
"I'm on a high now, Lucy. You've sliced my arm off, broken my other and twisted my leg beyond breaking point. But I have you exactly where I want... no, I have you exactly where I _need_ you to be. Besides, if you kill me he'll never see you again until the day _he_ dies. And I know you don't want that."  
Lucy shook her head.  
"I only want you to say one thing, Lucy. I want you to tell me that just _once_, I was better than you. That you creatures aren't going to have it completely easy taking the world from our cold, dead fingers. Just say that I beat you, fair and square."  
"Bando… you won, fair and square." That hurt Lucy far more than the burning metal.  
"_Play along. I'm going to draw them in."_  
Lucy found this supremely disconcerting. He was still kneeling above her like a predator ready to take its prey either by the neck or (worryingly) by the groin. Never mind that purely with that dynamic in mind this sudden chain of events had impressed her, that a lowly _primate_ like Bando could find a way to take a creature of her stature down and make demands of her. It was either this or death, and once again her fickle mind wasn't leaning towards the latter option.  
Bando then spoke in a loud, booming ham- "I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS MY ENTIRE LIFE, BITCH!"

He then stood up in full view of the window and unzipped his pants.

----

"_WAIT!_" the Captain remarked. He'd gotten their attention.  
"What the fuck is he doing, Captain?_"_  
"_Is he trying to… Mr. Director, sir, this is urgent!_"

----

Bando continued his lewd mime in front of a perplexed (and disgusted) Lucy, thrusting his hips and lolling his head to his left, right and behind. She shook her head in disbelief and looked up through the… windows.  
Bando spoke- "To your left, half a mile away. Nobody to the right, not sure about behind me. OH BABY, THAT'S THE SHIT!"  
Again – and this time, less reluctantly – he'd impressed her.  
"Allow me."

----

"_It appears that he is attempting to… copulate with the target._"  
"**What??!**_"_  
The Captain started to repeat the last sentence but stopped mid-flight. What he saw next he could scarcely believe- Lucy had got up from the floor and started to disrobe, drawing his tongue into her mouth. She brought up her legs to his hips, then the pair performed two complete circles in the embrace and fell to the floor. The Captain then saw Lucy mounting him, her head peering above the window repeatedly and rapidly.  
"**Shoot him."**  
"_Sir?_"  
**"Eliminate the Sergeant, immediately!"**  
"_Affirmative. Private, fire when ready._"  
"I can't see him, it's just her!_"_

Lucy peered above the rear window in her mock-throes: "BANDO…. One behind you, about 20 yards away. OH BANDO…"  
"You're a great actress, you know that?"  
"Who says I'm acting?" Lucy said, forcing his hand around her waist whilst gripping the edge of his pants. She was really getting into this.  
"What about your boy?"  
"My heart belongs to him. My body you fixed, so I believe you deserve a test drive."  
"Lucy… This isnt'… doing your plate any good…" _He_ was getting into it as well.  
"The one in front's moving in. Just when I was enjoying life for a moment." Lucy continued, acting it up still. Bando started to wonder whether or not he'd done too good a job this time, but it wasn't as if he was complaining. Lucy then moved down, pressing herself against him and gripping tightly, sweat wracking their semi-naked bodies. She kissed him honestly, full on the lips.  
"Bando, no matter what happens in the next 5 minutes, I want to thank you for showing me how stupid I've been in the last day or so. Now, I have a serious question and I want you to think about the answer."  
"'Am I married?'"  
"No, 'Do you have some half decent weapons in here'?"  
"…Oh. For a moment there…"  
"I know. Sorry."

The shack fell silent. The Private facing the hut from the north side didn't know what to do next, even with the order from the Director. If the two were still doing the deed on the floor, how could either of them be sure a stray bullet wouldn't hit the girl? He could see his Captain edging towards the back of the hut cautiously, as if he could get a shot in. Yet he couldn't trust his Captain to move up to the back of the hut and secure the situation from there because – from briefing – he was told that the girl had lethal weapons with a lightning-quick response time.  
"Captain?"  
"_Yes, Private?_"  
"Why don't we let them finish, sir? That's the only way we're going to get a safe shot without harming the woman, sir!"  
"_Negative! The director was explicit- we have to take him out now!"_  
"Am moving in. If they're still doing it, then now's the best chance to close in."  
"_Wait!_"  
The Private stood up and paced forwards, bearing down on the north window. Lucy raised her head one last time in an apparent orgasmic trance, eyes darting north then shutting quickly.  
"Sir! I've been spot..."  
The Private was cut off with a burst of automatic gunfire coming from the inside of the hut. He quickly dived into the ground, not noticing the door of the shack bursting open.

Lucy dashed straight across the river and into the trees opposite, hiding quickly. The Private raised his head to see that the door was open and the sides of the shack had been opened up with gunfire but he couldn't make out if the rogue soldier was still there. His Captain was dashing back into the bushes and behind a tree.  
"_Private, Report!_"  
"Unharmed, sir. Someone's escaped, likely to be the woman at least. If the Sergeant is still there he's packing something heavy, and I don't have a conventional sidearm."  
"_God damn it! Find the woman, fast. I'll take care of him._"  
The Private edged across the grass to the river. Feeling into the water he could see it was deep enough to curtail his crawl, so he swiftly waded across and entered the tree-line. He saw his Captain pinned down opposite the shack by carefully-placed gunfire and he leaned by the tree, aiming at the lower half of the door on the off-chance that Bando was willing to back out. Sure enough, he spotted a pair of boots peering out of the door.  
"Just a bit further, you prick..." he whispered.  
Moments later something in his scope distracted him, and he let go of his aim to find himself suspended upside-down a good ten feet in the air. He looked down in fear to find his other target standing underneath him with malice in mind.  
"Good morning!" Lucy said with a cruel sneer.  
He brought his rifle back to bear, aimed right at her face. He never got the chance to pull the trigger, as she snapped his hand back 150 degrees and sliced his gun clean in two.

His Captain heard the scream in the distance, and he immediately reached for his radio.  
"_Mr. Director sir! We are under attack from both targets. Support needed immediately!"_  
"**What the hell do I pay you for?!!? Very well, it's on it's way. Oh, and if I'm not disturbing you, will you please KILL THAT BASTARD?!?**"  
He reached his rifle around the corner of the tree he was hiding behind and fired a shot into the hut. This was met with another round of automatic fire.  
"_I've got to let him get into the open somehow…._"

Inside the hut, Bando let off another round, this time met with a pained scream from beyond, then an uneasy silence followed.  
"Too easy…" he thought. He pulled the trigger one more time in the same direction for assurance, then he backed all the way out of the hut and crawled onto the grass. He reached the edge of the river and made his final mistake. He stood up.  
"Lucy, are you there?" he cried out, to be met with an affirmative answer.  
The Captain made his move- turning right around his tree, he brought his gun to aim on Bando's head. Bando heard the rustling behind him, however, and turned right around, firing off directly behind him. Before the Captain was hit, he squeezed the trigger from his rifle. The bullet lodged itself right-off-centre in Bando's chest. Both men fell to the earth.

Lucy dumped her charge and rushed back across to tend to Bando. Although still conscious he was lying prone on his back, coughing blood and staring into the sky shivering.  
"Bando… this can't be happening, not now…"  
"Lucy, (**coughing**) he got my lungs. I'm done for."  
"Now hold still, don't do anything" she replied. She reached a vector inside his body and gently felt her way around inside. Amazingly, she found the bullet. Carefully bringing it up back through the wound, she held it up in front of this face, tears streaming down hers.  
"_That_ simple, hahaha." Bando bitterly exclaimed. "Wish I could have done that a few minutes ago."  
"Do you know what's really funny, Bando?"  
"What?"  
"I know Kohta's predicament now. His cousin's in love with him, I'm in love with him and he's having a hard time making his mind up who he loves more. I sympathise with him."  
"_Don't say that, Lucy!_ (**cough**) that's not fair on you or him. You and me, it wouldn't work out in a million years."  
"Why not?"  
"Because you're really not the psychotic cunt I took you for. You're a good woman and you'll (**cough**) make him happy. But you'll have to get Kakuzawa out of the way first. Carve a hole in the bottom of the shed and you'll find more conventional shit in a bag underneath."  
"For what it's worth, Bando, I'm sorry you never got your catch."  
"Shit, it ain't the catch that matters. It's the chase. And by the way, don't you remember what you were like earlier?"  
"Yeah."  
"Well, hehe… get outta here, and I'll be along in about ten minutes or so."  
Bando coughed up more blood and breathed meaningful air for the final time, the yellow-tinted view of her face fading to black. In Lucy's mind, Bando joined Kanae and her father amongst the few deaths she regretted seeing. And she also remembered the promise Kohta forced her to make that she had managed to hold proud until now.

She laid him onto the grass and closed his eyelids, then tearfully turned back towards the shack. Inside she gathered her shirt and dressed again, then she smashed the floor into shards of timber and found the bag that he mentioned. Inside she discovered many weapons of various international origins – most of them stolen – along with a reasonable amount of ammunition.  
"_Better not leave anything to chance_" she thought. Grabbing Bando's sunglasses from the table she reached into the bag and produced a grenade, then took the pan of water from the butane tanker and placed the grenade in the cradle. Lucy then went ouside and hauled Bando's body up the steps and into the hole, returning out for the Captain's. She then took the stove and grenade and placed it in the shack's entrance way, dashing outside to retrieve the Captain's rifle. She crossed the river back over to where the Private was, and he was still there clutching his bleeding hand.  
"Don't move." Her tone was grave-deep. She then gripped the rifle, aimed at the grenade and triggered an impromptu cremation of both Bando and his killer.  
Lucy saluted the fire and turned towards the solider in fear for his life.

"N..n..n..no, p..please. I'm just doing my job."  
"So am I. My job is to wipe out the human race, one at a time."  
She gripped him by the throat, choking him for a few seconds. His eyes watered and his pupils started to expand whilst he desperately struggled to breathe. Lucy then dropped him to he ground, swung a vector like a fist and knocked him into a tree behind him, knocking him out cold. She went back to Bando's bag hoping to find some rope to tie the Private up, and again he hadn't let her down. She fastened him to a tree and took a few minutes to look at the unconscious solider, raising his hood. He couldn't have been older than nineteen, and he had a handsome, boyish face. Not too dissimilar to Kohta.  
"Think yourself lucky" she muttered under her breath.  
She looked back towards the burning hut and tried to get herself into focus. Attitudes to life and death and afterlife aside, this had been a fairly good week at work for the Grim Reaper. Maybe upon her final death he might have the courtesy to wait for her on the other side of the river with a bottle of whatever Bando had been drinking last night. That was, if Bando hadn't mugged the skeleton for it first. She donned Bando's sunglasses and addressed the pyre-

"If you're back amongst us, I've tied the other one up by the tree. You can let him loose when he awakens."  
Lucy then disappeared eastward into the woods back towards Kamakura, and destiny.

* * *

**NEXT:** The director's here, the cast are here, the stage is set but the script is about to get a rather drastic overhaul. 


	18. What promises are for

**DISCLAIMER:** I still do not own any Elfen Lied characters.

Bando's played his part in getting Lucy back into focus and on the road to finding her love again. However she's aware of what she may need to do because she's seen her former enemy suffer the alternative. The question on her mind must be if Kohta knows what she needs to do as well, and whether or not he'll still love her regardless of her choice…

* * *

**CHAPTER EIGHTEEN**

Kazuzawa looked upon Kohta and Yuka, forcibly restrained both in appearance and thought, as he retrieved his cell-phone from his coat. Hovvering his finger over Bando's number on his speed-dial system he inhaled the morning scent of washed grass through his nose and sighed triumphantly. All he had to do was wait for the Queen Bee to arrive and he'd won at long last, then the other two didn't matter- expendable but useful in menial capacities, as he'd told them.  
"_I'm not going to bother to torture you two, there's no need. We know exactly where she is and in a few minutes she'll be here to kiss you goodbye. I'll keep my word and find you jobs that nobody with an ounce of skill would touch, and I get to nail her every night of the week, twice on Sundays. And guess what today is?_"  
Kohta shot him a glare that could cut through vault doors.  
"_That's funny. You're supposed to laugh_", Kakuzawa retorted.  
Yuka smiled. "What's funnier is that as soon as you get it up she's gonna slice you in two and you get to die sucking yourself off."

The predictable right-hook to Yuka's face made Kohta strain forwards in immeasurable rage.  
"_I can get a Katana delivered here in minutes. Any more talk like that from you and your friend here will test that theory._"  
One of the guards reached for his radio, listened in and nodded- "Sir! The roadblocks are in position."  
"_Gentlemen, would you excuse us_?" he asked the guards, flashing a Magnum pistol from inside his pockets. They obliged, steadily marching through the yard to the entrance. His audience would be limited to the two captives and the unseen ghosts of father & daughter Kurama.

-

"As soon as they're gone I'm going to choke him", Kensuke seethed.  
"It's too soon Daddy, they'd notice the ruckus. We need to get the humans away first."  
"Can you cut the ropes?" he asked Mariko. She shook her head-  
"My vectors won't work on real things anymore, and my hands are too small for knots."  
"Your mother's _very_ good at those. In a few minutes I'll distract him so you can get them away. But now, we've gotta wait."  
"Who's the 'she' he's talking about, Daddy?"  
"It must be Nana. But doesn't he know Nana can't have kids?"

Kakuzawa pushed Bando's key on his phone, and patiently waited for a response.  
"_Bando, this is the Director… You ask me as if you have a choice in the matter…I know exactly what you were up to last night… You're implying that you quit?… I hope you remember how you defied us last time, that's not how else we'll cut you off… Your lovechild may not think you're so funny, not when he's fishing the bullet out of his guts through his anus… Now that I have your attention at long last, we have good reason to believe that Lucy is still alive. We've begun gathering the dead from the bridge, and there's no sign of an adult female…_"

Kensuke and Mariko were in disbelief and amazement. Lucy? _Alive?_

" _I want her alive and fuckable, if possible. We're at the Cherry Blossom Graveyard with a little bait for persuasion. Find her and bring her there… We do have other leads to chase, she won't be the only lynchpin for my Empire. Take a wild guess…Make sure I hear from you every 90 minutes, or you can guess what happens next… Bye._"  
He hung up, smirking, and resumed his 'seat' against his tombstone. Kohta and Yuka looked in each other's eyes, picking up the idea with horrifying ease.  
"_The parcel's in the post."_

_ -_

"Don't look at me, Mariko, I can't explain it either!" Kensuke exclaimed, dumbfounded.  
"But we saw her body! This doesn't make sense, she _was_ dead wasn't she?"  
"Not dead enough, obviously… Right, Mariko, we're going to have to wait longer now. If Lucy comes with Bando it's going to be very difficult getting these two free. We can't count on Nana, I left her home and I hope she stays there."  
"And if Lucy's on her own?"  
"… … … this graveyard's fixing to get more business. Mariko, your mother's hiding in her grave. Tell her what's going on and get ready to move _fast._"  
Mariko wheeled away swiftly while Kensuke observed his nemesis enjoying the silence that would not last in any event, and he noted that the tension present in the air existed in a one-way stream from captives to captor.

"_Take a seat, you two. I have one vital question towards you, young lady. Your career and your life will depend on how you answer._"  
The pair obliged, and Kakuzawa parked up in front of Yuka. He noticed that his fist hadn't reddened her skin too badly, yet her gaze remained cold and piercing. After about a minute of her dodging his face, he asked away-  
"_Sugar in first, or milk?_"  
"Sugar" Yuka replied, unsure of his line of questioning. Kakuzawa broke out into the biggest shit-eating grin possible.  
"_Ding ding!_ _The last person who got that question right had her head twisted from her body like a bread-stick by Lucy. Nothing personal mind you, she just got in the way. And I haven't had a decent cup ever since. Also, __entre-nous__, I've had enough experience to tell whether or not my tea-lady has sneaked a quick one into the teapot..._"  
Yuka's face betrayed a smile and a stifled laugh, which annoyed Kohta but lightened the mood a little.  
"_You see? I can be a nice guy most of the time as long as you don't interfere with my plans…" _Kakuzawa's radio cracked into life, and he listened intently, answering-  
"_**Good. Once the Sergeant leaves with the quarry, escort them to the graveyard**__… As I was about to say, on a decent day with a decent drink I'll always have time for my staff, even if it's only a moment"._

_ -_

Kensuke, however, had no such reason to be happy- in all this excitement he had genuinely forgotten his terminally clumsy-but-cheerful aide Kisaragi, and the day she met her gruesome end as a mere footnote towards Lucy's escape. Remembering every last horrific detail of how a single blind rush with his favourite coffee-mug sent her tripping up in front of Lucy, Kensuke shook his head slowly.  
He remembered the way she looked up at the menace in the steel mask, wondering why her master was screaming in terror just before her head casually parted from her neck. He also remembered the way her body was used as a shield against the gunfire his troops had laid down, and the way some of them were butchered seconds later. He also remembered Lucy sarcastically patting him on the back in her infernal march towards the emergency exit, and the way he stood watching Kisaragi's corpse in solemn silence for moments afterwards. Most of all, he could remember her face, especially her reactions after dropping the coffee mug twice in the same day, knowing she'd have to make it all over again. He missed that look of wounded innocence more than anything, especially as Nana had grown out of it a few hours ago.  
Kisaragi was never afforded that chance.

He turned away towards the woods and began to offer a prayer to her soul… and found a better alternative watching from the trees.  
"Doctor-san, is that you?"  
"Kisaragi?"

He ran towards her, not quite believing his eyes. She jumped up and down excitedly, having not seen him since that awful day. For a brief moment they gripped each other like old friends who hadn't been in touch for years. Kensuke was earnestly glad to see her again.  
"What happened to you, Doctor?"  
"It's too much to go into right now, but I need you to do me a favour."  
"What is it?"  
"There are going to be a load of solders on the roads soon. I want you to keep an eye on what's going on, and I'll also need you to find a safe path to lead two live people away from here in a few minutes."  
"What's going on?"  
"**Lucy's on her way here, and Hell will follow**."  
"… I'll do what I can, Doctor. What does Lucy look like?"  
"Cherry-red hair, black dress with a pink T-shirt underneath it. I don't know when she'll be here so you must be quick."  
"I'll do anything to help!"  
Kensuke returned towards the scene, and Kisaragi gleefully skipped back into the woods. She now had a face to fit the name, but any retribution – no matter how small – would have to wait.  
"_And I'd got his coffee just right, that day. I've been waiting for this._"

-

On Kensuke's return Mariko and Hiromi were ducking behind the latter's headstone waiting patiently for a cue to spring into action. The trio noticed Kakuzawa idly talking to the pair of real people about his plans for the human and Diclonius races, but the interesting things were their reactions- Yuka was playing along with him, noticeably keeping a level head in spite of Kakuzawa's rhetoric. Kohta, by contrast, was becoming more concerned for Lucy's safety with every word and whenever he got the chance he tried to counter the old man's silver tongue with heartfelt arguments that Lucy deserved respect as a real person, not just a monster-

"Don't you understand? Love is what makes us different from animals. All it needs for a Diclonius to defy their killer instinct is love and compassion."  
"_What makes us different from animals is that we don't use our tongues to clean our nuts._"  
"You're not listening! When Lucy was a kid, I showed her that people don't have to be cruel and mean and deceitful. It's why I'm…" he stopped.  
"_Still alive? I see… you have a natural talent for getting yourself into trouble, dear boy. I believe the mop and bucket shall suit you to a tee as long as you stay clear of the server room…"_  
Their conversation was interrupted by Kakuzawa's radio. He answered, and the cheer vanished-  
"_**What?!?... … Shoot him… Eliminate the Sergeant, immediately!**_"  
Kakuzawa got up from his seat and kicked a random headstone, a reaction that was lost on none of the witnesses, live or dead. He paced anxiously towards and away from the couple, and then received an update from the radio…  
"_**What the HELL do I pay you for?!!?... Very well, it's on its way. Oh, and if I'm not disturbing you, will you please KILL THAT BASTARD?!?**__"_

That cheered up Kohta no end, and it was his turn to stifle laughter by biting on his tongue firmly. Kakuzawa looked towards the sky, sighed and announced his revised plan.  
"_Those lazy turds aren't getting re-enforcements. Predators don't like to be fed, they want to hunt. Boy, she didn't make a tearful pledge to mend her ways and cease her mindless orgy of brutality, did she?_"  
"No", Kohta half-lied. After all, **he** made **her** promise that.  
"_If she did, you'd better be ready to have a shit day."_

-

A loud explosion just west of Kamakura signalled the start of that day. Kakuzawa dashed from his station to the front entrance and his guards. The moment came, and the Kurama family took full advantage-

Kohta and Yuka were asking each other what was happening, when suddenly their bonds became loose by themselves.  
"Get up", Hiromi addressed them.  
"What?" Kohta dozily said.  
"We haven't a minute to lose, you must get out of here!" Mariko squealed. Yuka darted her head side to side trying to trace the voices, with no real clue. Suddenly out through the air a young woman and child appeared before them, much to her distress. "Hello."  
"… Hello. Who are you?"  
"I'm Doctor Kurama's wife, and this is our daughter. We have to leave right now, you hear? Things are going to get bad, fast!"  
"But what about Ny… Lucy?"  
Mariko answered- "You're not going to want to see what happens in any event. She's coming here and she's probably mad as hell."

Kensuke called from behind- "He's coming back! Get in the trees and follow the road North but keep off it! I've got someone watching the roads, she'll keep you clear."  
"Then I'm staying!" Kohta said angrily.  
"Don't be a fool, you have to get away right now!" Hiromi replied.  
"She knows I'm here, so if she finds I'm not here where's she going to go?!? I have to see her again."  
"Ain't nothing goinna change your mind?" Mariko quizzed him.  
"I love her, and if either of us dies today then for a moment we'll be together. Yuka, please get away. Nana and Mayu are waiting at home."  
"_Relegated again._" Yuka mumbled to herself. "You stupid idiot, Kohta… do me a favour and wedge that mop you-know-where, okay?"  
Kohta held her hands and kissed her on the lips. "She's coming back, with or without me. I'm lucky to have known you."  
"Don't remind me!" Yuka weeped, then she left with Hiromi and Mariko back into the woods. Moments later she was safely out of sight.

Kohta's head slumped forwards, and he suddenly felt something cold on his neck- Kakuzawa's Magnum.  
"_Out of curiosity, how __did__ you get loose?_" he asked. Kohta didn't reply except to sob a little.  
"_No matter. You'll have to do double-duty in the kitchen."_ Kakuzawa retorted, marching Kohta at arm's length back up to the graveyard. On reaching the destination he bent Kohta over a large tombstone and aimed his gun right at his spine.  
"_One more stunt like that and you can kiss the notion of walking under your own steam goodbye. Permanently. Guard! Re-tether this man._"  
"What about the woman, sir?"  
"_She's of no concern. Keep Lucy's welcome committee intact._"

Kensuke watched as a guard returned to fasten Kohta's arms behind his back. Kensuke stood back near his wife's grave and watched as Kakuzawa clearly became more agitated as the morning progressed, focusing his growing discomfort on the small of Kohta's back by spinning the barrel of his gun Russian-Roulette-style and miming shots with various 'bang' noises.  
"One problem out of the way, and onto the other" Kensuke thought, "Do I wait until Lucy arrives to spring him?"

---

Yuka and company had reached a fairly safe little clearing overlooking the western road, not far from the sea-view hilltop. She begged her ghostly carers to let her stop for a moment to catch her breath- whilst being fairly fit she had been almost running blind away from the cemetery without proper guidance, mental anguish and sleep-deprivation aside. She collapsed onto the ground and stared into the clearing sky. Mariko's transparent face glided into view.  
"How are ya doing?" she asked.  
"Just a minute longer", Yuka replied, sitting up and taking in the view. Absolutely nothing was disturbing the natural tranquil of Sunday morning, but to her the silence was the most _un_natural thing about the situation- something evil was due to hit the area and she knew it.  
"This whole thing stinks. I don't even know what's happened to Lucy anyway."  
"Mommy, are we clear?" Mariko asked Hiromi. Listening and looking around for a short while, she nodded.  
"Well, miss…"  
"Yuka. What's your name?"  
"Mariko. Nice to meet you. Anyway, last night after me and my Dad were killed in that big bang on the bridge, Lucy came back to fight more guards. She got hit and she died, or so we thought- we were talking to her ghost for quite a long time. Then a strange man came along and stole her body, and her ghost followed them. And now all I know is that she's not dead after all, but the man might be."

"In other words, you're none the damn wiser either." Yuka almost laughed. Mariko shook her head, then she turned north and wheeled forward a little hoping for the woman Daddy sent forward to show up.  
"I'm going on ahead, Mommy."  
"Miss Yuka," Hiromi started. "I've never met this Lucy but I keep on hearing that she's caused grief for a lot of people. I hope your friend thinks this is worth it."  
"To tell you the truth, I don't really know this 'Lucy' either. She washed up on the beach about a month ago and she was acting strange like she had amnesia or something, she kept on saying the word 'Nyu' so that's what we started calling her. Her memory came and went from time to time, that's the best I can tell you. But Kohta really became attached to her and she did kinda become part of the family alongside Mayu and Nana…"  
"Nana? She's living with you?"  
"Yeah."  
"I'd love to meet her one day. My husband speaks wondrous things about her all the time."  
"She's really sweet. But the thing about 'Lucy' is that the more I hear of what she's supposed to have done, the less I really want her to remember. Nyu's her sweet side, you know?"

Hiromi smiled, then Mariko called out from the short distance-  
"She's here."  
"Your dad's contact?"  
"No. Lucy."

---

On the roadside below two guards were keeping careful watch in both directions, awaiting the fight of their lives. They stopped their patrol for a moment to talk to each other in order to stave off the innate boredom of soldiers standing-around-doing-nothing-when-they'd-rather-be-asleep. On the overlooking clearing the trio laid down on their stomachs, compelled to watch against all rational sensibility. Mariko's sharp eyes spotted a dark shape in the woods below pacing behind the trees approaching the small blockade. The troops were none the wiser, however, still idly yakking away when two ghostly hands approached from the roadside. Mariko and Hiromi tensed up but Yuka couldn't see what was going on.  
"What's happening?"  
"She's aiming for the kill" Mariko said with a perversely excited tone.  
Just as quickly, though, the vectors dis-engaged their targets and the shape moved away from them a few yards up the road. The soldiers noticed precisely none of this, but the ghosts overlooking were wondering why she hadn't butchered them yet.  
"I'm scared" Hiromi said.

From behind, the three of them heard firm footsteps- they turned around to see another ghost, that of a brown-haired girl.  
"The Doctor said there'd be… two of you?" Kisaragi asked.  
Yuka became sad. "Kohta's not coming. It's just me."  
"…Right. My name's Kisaragi. I used to make the Doctor's coffee."  
"Miss Kisaragi… may I ask you something… did Lucy kill you?" somehow Yuka expected an affirmative answer.  
"Yes, why?"  
"She's already here. I get the feeling a bloodbath is about to start."  
"Oh dear" was all Kisaragi could say. "And these two are?"  
"The Doctor's wife and child."  
"Oh! I had no idea… he never said anything. Hello."  
"Hi!" they said in canon. Kisaragi kneeled next to her to watch the unfolding spectacle.

The two troopers broke away from their banter to resume their normal route, when from nowhere a grenade was tossed from the wood-side. Neither of heard the item in question, but one of them stopped to inspect it upon turning around-  
"_Renzo, you dipshit! You dropped another 'nade!_"  
"Sorry, Yamada… Oi, this isn't mine! It's not even army issue! Still got the pin in it though… You know what this is?"  
"_One second, Renzo, I know a bit about militaria… hmm… ah, yes! I recognise the serial type- it's British._"  
"British?"  
"_Yeah, SAS-issue kit._"  
"SAS? Doesn't sound like regular stuff to me."  
"_Oh, it ain't. I might get ¥40,000 for this in a pawn shop…_"  
They were wrapped up in their conversation when the dark shape stepped out into the clearing, sporting a sniper rifle. Lucy calmly aimed and pulled the trigger, noisily depreciating the value of the grenade whilst sending the hapless Renzo and Yamada to an early bath in the sky.

The four onlookers were _quite_ shocked.

"I did _not_ need to see that!" was all Yuka could come up with, as more troops approached from the South to inspect the carnage. Instead of repeating the trick, Lucy boldly walked out into the road carrying a large hold-all bag to greet them. She stopped dead-centre in the road, no more than 3 metres before the front-most solider, a Private. She lowered her shades and looked at him straight in the eyes, dropping the bag by her side. She then shot him a wink and took a single step forward.  
He elected to retreat with haste, and the others followed. Lucy let out a booming laugh that would strike fear a mile away… and a reverent grin into a certain 5-year-old watching overhead.  
Kisaragi spoke up. "Now's your chance- The road doesn't flatten out until about a mile Northward and there aren't any patrols on the Northern roads at all, you should be fine following it East until the railway station."  
"I don't live far from there."  
"Well then" Hiromi replied. "I'll get you away now. Miss Kisaragi, please look after my daughter for a while."

They headed North, while Kisaragi and Mariko's gazes followed Lucy.She reached into the bag and replaced the rifle with an M16, picking the bag back up after. She took a smooth stroll southward, whistling an eerie up-tempo rendition of _Lillium,_ clicking her fingers in time The troops stopped where the road reached the coast, with re-enforcements awaiting.

* * *

**NEXT:** I'll let you guess. 


	19. Destiny's Bastard

**DISCLAIMER: **Action fics are jolly well hard to write.

Hello, good morning and welcome to _The Road From Hell_, live from Kamakura, Kanagawa. Today we will be bringing you the featured contest between the Diclonius Research Institute's private army (with assistance from the JSDF) and Experiment Lucy. There's no time for faceless studio analysis so let's get right to the game with commentary from Char-lady Kisaragi and – firstly – Mariko Kurama.

**

* * *

CHAPTER NINETEEN**

"Did you say that Lucy killed you?" Mariko asked Kisaragi.  
"Yeah", she replied, pulling down on her shirt to reveal the tear in her neck. "I was trying to run the Doctor's coffee through to him and pretty much tripped straight into her. He was screaming at her not to hurt me, but she tore my head off like nothing. That wasn't the worst of it though, for a few seconds after I could see her marching towards the guards and she cut them up as well. I woke up a bit later and the Doctor was gone. I couldn't even say sorry for spilling his cup."  
"Why come back here?" Mariko followed up.  
"For about a week all I did was hang around the facility but I didn't have the heart to approach the Doctor again. I got bored of watching my replacement half-ass his job, so I left and came back to town. I missed my family but I figured they could do without the haunting for the time being. I've just been wasting time around here until Miss Saito turned up yesterday."

They continued to watch Lucy slowly walking towards the gathering throng near the seafront, when suddenly a dozen more guards arrived from the North, quickly forming a single rank a short distance behind her. Lucy stopped moving and turned to face them, judging that they only had conventional weapons. They opened fire, and she blocked every single shot with her vectors, calmly returning fire with her own rifle and eliminating the whole group. In the same beat she turned to deal with the group near the coast, killing three while the others fled. Certain she was alone, Lucy scoured the bodies of the ambush group, taking one gun and ammo. Loading her bag once more she followed the trees to the bottom of the road, somewhat more cautious.

"Did she just block _every single shot?!?_" Kisaragi asked, impressed.  
"Yeah, she did."  
"But how?"  
Mariko shot out a single vector in front of Kisaragi's face- "This is how. They're our weapons, and they're quite sturdy."  
"So _that's_ how she… uuugh. But why didn't she just cut them all up?"  
"Something tells me she either got bored of that or sickened. Even she's got limits. To tell ya the truth though, what she's doing now is more fun."  
"FUN? These are real people getting killed down there!"  
"Well, so's Lucy!"  
"Why is she doing this at all?"  
"The Director's holding her lover hostage back at the yard because he wants her to come back home. That's why she escaped in the first place, to say sorry to him. Only she knows the reason."  
Kisaragi got to her feet- "Will your momma be back in a minute?"  
"Yeah." Mariko replied.  
"I'm gonna follow her on foot. I want to see this through."

Lucy reached the coast to find the chasing pack heading towards the civilised beachfront area. In the distance she could spot a gathering of troops martial onlookers out of harm's way, and discerned that they were more concerned with stopping innocents getting killed than stopping her. She paced down the road coolly for a few yards and stopped for a moment to try to figure a route from here to the graveyard that would not only be safe for her but also any onlookers. And above all, she prayed that by procuring more ammo as her route progressed she didn't have to resort to her more traditional methods of despatch.  
Her thoughts were cut off by a bullet bouncing in front of her by inches. Quickly retreating behind the corner she recognised her Kryptonite, peering around to try and find the sniper. She found him sitting on a store roof from a fair distance behind the blockade. Grabbing her sniper rifle from the bag she found a position relative to the gunman from behind the nearest building, and used a vector to reach for another grenade. Counting to five she pulled the pin, turned back around and lobbed the grenade at the pack, hoping the blast would throw the shooter's concentration. The explosion caused the throng of soldiers to disperse and the gunman to stand up, providing an easy target for Lucy to dispatch.

"Are you coming to kill me or are you going to fuck about all day?" Lucy cried out, dashing towards the nearest building. She could hear several cries from in front of her for civilians to remain in their homes and shops, but then she picked up a small rumble on the ground in front of her, a few pebbles rolling past her feet. Looking around the corner she saw a large vehicle with something sticking out the front, and paced out in front of the building to meet it. She cocked her head slightly to the right, inquisitively looking at this giant green contraption being thrown in her path.  
Shots were fired from holes inside, blocked with ease, then the tank's turret swivelled slightly to face her.  
"FIRE!" a cry came from inside. Instinctively, Lucy ducked. The shell fired just over her head and impacted on the road, leaving a crater behind her. She looked back at the result and gave a wolf-whistle of approval.  
"Looks dangerous. You might hurt someone with that if you're not careful." Lucy sneered, walking towards the tank. About a metre in front she switched guns with a pistol, and fired into the slats on front, hitting nothing. Thinking quick, she placed a vector inside the barrel and placed a finger of it on the shell, putting another on the ground in front of her ready for a kickback.  
"FIRE!" another cry came from the inside. The barrel was right in Lucy's face, so any successful shot would be fatal.  
The tank exploded on contact, and Lucy propelled herself backwards feet but got caught with the blast, landing awkwardly on her side and setting her dress alight. She swiftly put the fire out but had to roll (then dash) out of the way of the burning hulk coming down to flatten her.  
"_If Kohta saw me do that he'd be quite upset._"

Kisaragi was stood some distance behind the wreckage.  
"She was right- this _is_ fun."

---

Yuka and Hiromi walked swiftly and silently along the side of the hill nearest western road, watching soldiers dash down the road. Not wanting to dwell on the impending issue they ducked low to stop Yuka from being spotted, and a short while the road flattened out. Yuka stopped for a moment, still tired out. Exhaustion and fear preying on her mind, she nervously scoured the area for sustenance of some kind, finding a puddle of water near some bushes. Out of desperation she dived straight for it, noisily slurping upon the muddy liquid.  
"I didn't realise you were _that_ exhausted!" Hiromi commented.  
"No offence, but I guess that having been dead for a while you tend to forget the irresistible need to have a drink now and then. I haven't slept since Friday and I'm shattered."  
"Fair point."  
"_Excuse me! Hey, you, Lady!"_ something shouted out.  
Panic overtaking Yuka's mind she suddenly dashed behind some shrubs. She reasoned she'd been spotted by the guards wanting to hunt for Lucy, and she was going to be roped back in to this horrible mess and end up right back with Kohta.  
Yuka prayed for divine intervention to come pluck her to safety. She got a dead soldier standing over her, impatiently tapping his feet.  
"HEY!" he screamed out, making her jump. She looked up at Bando's face.  
"Have you seen a girl with horns and big tits carrying a sack o' guns around here?"  
"Um…yeah, she's right down the road. You're a friend of hers?"  
"You might say that. Thanks!" Bando replied, and made a sharp exit Southbound. Yuka got to her feet and looked back at him in disbelief.

"Hiromi?"  
"Yes."  
"Take me home, and only stop me if you find a puddle of Cognac."

---

Lucy stopped behind the tank for a moment to catch her breath and massage her tender side. She reckoned that even though she was giving them enough time to set themselves up at least nobody else would get in the way. Looking through the bag she could see that even with the stuff she was picking up it wouldn't last forever, but she could remember terrifying shades of her old life returning to provide her with the only foreseeable alternative to the guns. And that frightened her as she would never be able to keep it under her hat if she tried, even though it would be fairly obvious to Kohta if he could hear the fight from all the way up the hill. She closed her eyes and made a quick dedication to the man she loved, hoping that her old life never returned anew.

She opened her eyes to see a greenhorn pointing a gun in front of her face. His gun arm wavered slightly but it mattered little as the barrel was right on her forehead.  
"The Director wants you alive."  
"He didn't want _you_ alive, obviously" Lucy replied, casually disarming the soldier with a vector and twisting his arm behind him, then marching him around the tank towards the pack of troops waiting for her. She didn't speak a word out of obviousness. Regardless, they aimed and prepared to fire.  
"YOU ROTTEN BASTARDS!" was the soldier's final say on the subject before being turned into Gouda by his compatriots. Dropping him on the floor she stood there and took the full barrage until they ran dry. Lucy snored loudly in response, and casually walked back around the burnt-out tank. Standing back behind a few feet, she gripped all four vectors on the hulk, swung it around and forcefully threw it forward, causing the troops to scatter and dive over the sea wall to the beach. Grabbing the bag Lucy then advanced a mite before being stopping to look to her left, towards the town centre.

She saw a small girl standing there with a teddy bear, looking her in the eyes.

"Have you seen my Daddy?" she asked Lucy. Thinking of her answer she spotted another line of troops forming a queue to mow her down. The little girl looked up at Lucy and repeated her question.  
"No, I haven't." Lucy replied. She then walked towards the girl and kneeled down in front of her.  
"DO NOT FIRE! DO NOT FIRE!" the cry came from the awaiting soldiers beyond. It was _all very well_ capping one of their own and all… Lucy spoke to the little girl.  
"You see those nasty men behind you? They want me, not you. Be a good girl and get out of the way, okay? When I leave, ask someone else if they can find your Daddy for you." The girl nodded, then dashed behind one of the buildings. Lucy stood up and shouted out at the line with defiance-

"I already killed an innocent because I hated someone else, and I regret doing that."  
"Oh _how magnanimous_. FIRE AT WILL!" the cry came back at her.

---

Mariko had seen enough for a little while to recognise that Lucy had taken care of things, so she wheeled the chair back through the woods, passing Saito en route.  
"What's happening? I hear shooting!"  
"Lucy's upholding her reputation."  
"Oh dear."

Mariko wheeled her way into the cemetery and approached her father, still standing at the grave.  
"Daddy, the lady got away. How's it going here?"  
"The Director's still hopping mad that Lucy escaped, and from the copious amount of noise I gather she's got things in hand down town. Is she on her own?"  
"Yeah."  
"Then it looks like Bando didn't make it."  
Kakuzawa's radio came to life- "Mr Director sir! Word has come through that a detachment of 50 troops are on their way to the town centre. Word's also around that they're carrying AP rifles, as per your request."  
"_Fantastic. We can put an end to this shit inside minutes. Have them escort her here in person._"

Mariko got the message loud and clear. Turning her chair towards the edge of the hill overlooking the middle of town, she could see the detachment march towards the square to meet the throng awaiting the menacing Diclonius making her way past the small-fry. She could see her newest idol walk straight towards her doom seemingly without a care. Her ego forgotten entirely, she knew that not only if Lucy gave herself up she would be fated to do whatever Kakuzawa wished, if she tried to take them down then once again she'd be talking ghost-to-ghost, with no improbable return on the cards. Mariko felt she had to do something.  
"What can I do?" she wondered aloud. All she could see was her own frail little body in the chair… and what was inside.

Kensuke looked on as Kakuzawa's bravado returned. Kakuzawa was commenting to Kohta how all the fun Lucy was having wrecking the town and how it would eventually amount to naught, when Mariko returned with considerable haste.  
"Daddy, where's your phone?"  
"What phone?"  
"Your cellphone, I need it!"  
"I don't think it works anymore, you can try I guess" Kensuke was dumbfounded. He produced the phone from his jacket pocket and handed it to Mariko. She opened it up to read the message "TIMER – OFF". She pressed the unit's down arrow once, and the phone bore the legend "MANUAL DETONATE, PRESS OK"  
"What are you doing, Mariko?"  
She merely showed him the message on the phone, smiled, and wheeled off with the cry "**you goddamn maniac!**" ringing in her ears.

---

Yuka and Hiromi reached the Inn at long last without further incidents from soldiers or roaming ghosts. Yuka was puzzled to find both sets of doors already open, but to be frank she was beyond caring at this point- she was home, unlikely to see either Kohta or Nyu again, and facing the prospect of single-parenthood to both a human and a horn-head whilst facing the prospects of explaining all this to her parents and having to pack college in to find a proper job. Whilst spending the rest of her life looking over her shoulder.

"Well, this is my place", she addressed the ghoul. "This is where I'm getting off this lunatic ride, and I'm going to wake up in a matter of hours to raise two kids by myself."  
"_Don't think like that, I'm sure they'll be back. I just have this feeling inside me_."  
"I'd love to share your optimism, but it's only going to happen if Lucy wipes out the entire army by herself just for Kohta's sake. They love each other and they'll be together in any case, but I just feel so damn helpless about the whole thing. And I can't stand being helpless."  
Yuka slouched her head while Hiromi put an arm across her shoulders. "_You've done everything you can do, and beyond that I'm sure. If it'll help, we'll come over in a couple of days to see how you're doing. It's the least I can do_."  
"Nana'll understand that, but Mayu… I think all this stuff about ghosts will send her round the bend."  
"_Even further than you?_"  
"… … I see what you did there" Yuka smiled. "Thanks for the offer. Best get back to the graveyard to your family. Please let Kohta know I love him, if you can."Yuka waved her goodbye meekly, and turned to enter the house with a bare minimum amount of energy. Hiromi turned to walk in a more straightforward direction back to the yard, holding her hands together.  
"_Please let me be right. Just once._" She thought, then stopped for a second, noticing the grass parting about three quarters of a mile in front of her.

Yuka looked inside to find the carriage clock shattered on the floor, and blood along the walls towards the bathroom.  
"MAYU? NANA?" she cried out, jumping over the clock and dashing towards the room. She looked inside and found a cupboard door wrecked in the entranceway… and Mayu unconscious in the bath in a pool of blood.

"…nonononoNONO!! Mayu baby, wake up!" she cradled the child in her arms. "What have they done to you?"  
Mayu stired, then opened her eyes- "…M..Mommy?"  
"Don't move, baby, you're hurt."  
"What?"  
"What have they done to you, Mayu?"  
"…Oh, that. Mommy, it's not my blood, I'm fine. I just (**yawn**) fell asleep trying to clean it up."  
"Well, whose blood is it?!?"  
"One of the soldiers came back to use our toilet, and Nana broke his neck."  
"That figures. But where's the body?"  
"He survived that, more soldiers came to take him away. Nana got me to safety, and… oh no."  
"What?"  
"She left to rescue you."

Yuka brought her hand to her face as if to stifle a nuclear warhead going off in her brain.  
"I can't… I just can't. Not now. Mayu, I'm too tired to do anything right now. I don't know if anyone's coming back anymore, I just don't know what to do." She started to cry.  
"D..d..don't cry, Mommy. Please don't cry. Let's just go to sleep, and when we wake up we can clean the house together."  
"Why? What's the point? It's just.."  
Mayu slapped Yuka in the face hard.  
"Because _they are coming back._ I just know it. Nana's being strong, Daddy Kohta's being strong and now I'm being strong. Please be strong, Mommy, please be strong for me."  
Yuka wept. "Okay, for you I'll be strong. But let's just sleep now."  
She keeled over in the bathtub with Mayu in her arms, and the first day of the rest of her life faded from view.

---

Lucy walked through the streets of Kamakura turning the militia's gunfire back on themselves, but doing it carefully as they'd (perhaps) unwittingly led her into the commercial districts- they'd turned her newfound compassion for bystanders to their advantage. Exactly what Lucy would have done a month ago. What made matters worse is that her own bag-of-tricks was starting to deplete rapidly and they weren't giving her enough time to do ammo roundups. They were getting tenacious and she knew that her luck may run out at any moment.  
Suddenly all the gunfire stopped, and Lucy stood near a noodle shop to catch her breath. The proprietor stood agape at the horned woman in front of her, clothes torn by gunfire and stinking to high heaven. Lucy absent-mindedly placed an empty automatic gun on the counter, and the terrified cook immediately produced a bowl of curried _Udon_.  
"Sorry, I didn't mean that!" Lucy immediately apologised.  
"N..no bother, please, it's on the house." He said, bursting through the back door in the direction of anywhere-but-here. Lucy ashamedly took him up on the offer whilst watching more goons arrive from the Northern end of the street, gathering yards from the shop. A good-ranking soldier from the pack approached with a megaphone-

"EXPERIMENT LUCY! We are carrying armour-piercing weaponry and we have a perfect aim at your head. By all means we will let you finish your hearty meal, but we must insist you come with us at once or we will take you down!_"  
_"_Well… I suppose I could kill him with a belch_" Lucy's mind reasoned. Even with what she was carrying there'd be few ways to escape if they meant business, and even with the unexpected meal her concentration was on the wane.  
Before she could make her mind up, however, she picked up a shrill cry in the distance. Cupping a hand to her ear to get a better bearing on the sound, Lucy heard the cry reach a crescendo as a peach-coloured blur approached from the left-hand side, and upon reaching the awaiting guards promptly exploded.

**

* * *

NEXT: **The action continues, right after these important messages… 


	20. Determination is not enough

**DISCLAIMER:** I don't own these characters.

Up until now, the battle went very well. But Lucy appears to have run out of luck against proper opposition in the form of high-velocity rifles. That is, if a less-than-divine intervention won't kill her first…

**

* * *

CHAPTER TWENTY**

Lucy shielded herself from the insane force of the blast before her, having no time to escape its purifying shockwaves and fiery judgement. She curled herself into a ball and thought of the unfair re-set to the way she was the previous night, knowing she'd have quite a long time to finish her guilty last supper. She prayed that one day Kohta would forgive her sins at her grave, and that he and Yuka would have a bright young child who would hear the good bits about Lucy's life as Nyu. And then Lucy realised those wistful thoughts took far too long to conjure…

She stood up and beheld fifty armed cadets in an equal amount of shock surrounding a wheelchair in the middle of the square, with precisely no damage to property or person coming of the explosion. Lucy gazed upon the occupant of that chair, beholding a look of complete disbelief and panic on her face. Straining her teeth _very_ hard Lucy took advantage of the welcome diversion to place her bowl on the counter, pick up her near-empty bag and cross the street on tip-toes behind a pharmacy opposite the noodle store.  
Mariko, not having noticed this exit, beheld several bemused faces in her direction looking at her deliberately opaque form. Her ultimately useless gambit had made her the centre of attention.  
She immediately consulted the cellphone for further advice and the possibility of an action replay, but the handset's mocking lack of response to her frantic keystrokes precipitated such attempts. Derisive chuckles broke out in the gathering, which led to the only recourse the little girl could take- she turned her chair to the left, blew a raspberry and made a hurried, undignified exit North past the guards, who followed at a leisurely march with guns ready.

One of the back-markers could have sworn he'd heard insane gibbering laughter somewhere behind him, but he was probably mistaken.

---

Hiromi strolled away from the Inn towards the source of the parting grass ahead- the reeds were parting slow and measured, as if the person inside did not want to be found. Not wanting to disturb the stealthy approach Hiromi branched off to the right of the line and paced ahead briskly to the source. She found what appeared to be a twelve-year-old girl with purple hair and horns crawling on all fours, with a thunderous look on her face.

Nana, moving through the grass, could still see Delta lying in the bathtub with blood oozing from his face. She was still having trouble telling if that really was him ordering her to leave the Inn or merely a cruel trick of the mind, as if the guards that had rushed in during their escape were there to collect the body rather than rescue him. One thing that definitely died in there was her notion that she would never be like the others at Home, driven to destroy those that dared approach no matter how pure their intent, never to entertain the notion of regret.  
At least Lucy –_of all people_– had teased that in front of her when she saved her life from that scientist yesterday. Nana had no idea whether or not she'd met her death on the bridge, but the sudden racket springing up from the beachfront sounded like a situation Lucy would relish. And, for that matter, the man who'd press-ganged Nana into finding her the day Papa helped her escape…  
Nana froze.

Papa and his family, Kohta, Yuka and the army all in the same place. The world could fit in a powder keg and Nana felt that either she or Lucy was the flame that would ignite it. She realised that she had to be even more careful how to rescue her newest parents from whatever the Director had planned, as there was a good chance Papa would witness this.  
The thought "_What would he think of me should I succeed? What if I fail?_" plagued Nana's mind, but she had to find the answer. She resumed her journey for a short distance and almost crawled through a closed pair of human feet.  
She looked up.

"You're Nana, right?"  
"And you are?"  
"Hiromi. Doctor Kurama is my husband."  
Nana stumbled backwards, the smile returning to her face. "How is he?"  
"Never mind him, how are _you_? My dear child, you look terrible!"  
"_All-ll-llright, Nana, from the top..._" Nana's soul grinned.  
"From Papa, two back teeth out with his fist, a shot to the guts, a boot to the ribs and the front of his hand on my buns several times. From his_ real_ daughter, a vector choking my throat and several body shots as well as being slammed into hard ground several times. Oh, and I was also shot in the shoulder by an army sniper- I merely recount the last half-a-day, by the way."  
Hiromi was marginally more shocked by Nana's casual tone than her medical report. "… dare I ask what else?"

"Did Papa tell you about his work?"  
"No."  
"**GOOD**. I'll just say that since I was a few months old pain was my closest friend until I met the Doctor. But I've lost several friends tonight and I need to get them back…"  
Hiromi took the chance to interrupt her- "I helped a lady called Yuka escape just now, she's back home. Her friend is still at the graveyard."

Nana wept a shade. "Thank you, thank you so much. But I've still gotta rescue Kohta."  
"You're in no fit state do anything! You need sleep, you need food, you need warmth!"  
"Who else is there? _Lucy_?"  
"Um… yes. That's her ripping the bay up right now."  
Nana pulled a double-take: "… that's not funny, 'Mama'."  
"I'm not joking. She turned up 15 minutes ago and started beating the hell out of the army! Grenades, rifles, automat…"  
Hiromi's hyperbolic description of events was interrupted by a bloodstained cry in the distance. She went pale.  
"That doesn't sound Like Lucy, it's too high." Nana commented.  
"It isn't. That's…(**gulp**) Mariko, my daughter."  
The infernal sound panned from Nana's centre to the left-hand side, and was interrupted by a concussive bang that made both Diclonius and spectre fall on their butts.  
"Whaddafuck?!?!… Oh I swore, excuse me!" Nana started. Hiromi was shaking like a leaf. She started to walk away, but looked back towards Nana, shaking her head.  
"Don't worry, just go" Nana said, confidently. "I can take care of this myself."  
"MARIKO! Mariko, Mommy's coming!" Hiromi broke into a sprint southbound. Nana shook her own head, like this would eventually make one heck of a diary entry.

"_And I thought __**I**__'d gone batshit for a moment_" she thought. She resumed her crawl through the reeds and eventually arrived at the base of the hill leading to the cemetery. Deciding that this would be a good time to conceal herself as much as possible, she jettisoned her limbs and concealed them well enough to spot them later.

"_If you can hear me, Papa, __I can't promise I won't kill the Director. But I must do what I must._"

---

Lucy's honest reaction to Mariko's attack left her doubled up behind the pharmacy, lucky that no soldiers were there to hear her restraint collapse. She wiped her face and pounded her chest just below her throat as if to quell an escape attempt from her meal, then checked her bag one more time- All that was left was Bando's Colt that she'd hastily swiped, now-empty sniper rifles and a single grenade.

"I'm surprised they lasted that long", an unknown female voice commented.  
"So am I, I got plenty of mil…" Lucy noticed that nobody was there. She looked around and couldn't point out where it came from.  
"Where are you? Who are you?"  
"Teeheehee, it's a secret. You got lucky there."  
Lucy shrugged her shoulders- "Not for much longer, I'm almost dry. I don't want to cut these people if I don't have to, so I need another route to the graveyard."  
"Follow the road she came down from behind the shops if you can, and after a minute the hill gets very steep. It's either that or… what you did to me."  
Lucy was spooked more by what she meant than what she said. "… that's not me, not anymore."  
"I know. Oh, and thanks for what you said when you saved that little girl, it meant a lot. I'm going on ahead."  
"Hey, wait!" Lucy cried out, but the voice was gone.  
"_I bet it's one of those I remember the least. That's how shit's working out right now._"

Lucy took the Colt and the solitary grenade from the bag and shoved them inside her dress, leaving the rifles behind. Rounding her head back onto the street running North/South she checked if everybody had gone chasing Mariko, and heard nothing except gunfire just North. She then rushed back to finish her dish, grabbed a single gun from a body and took the Western road with some haste, firstly checking her heart plate was still intact. Suddenly she heard a radio unit on one of the bodies-  
"_All troops come in! This is the Director speaking! You must all withdraw to the entrance of the Cherry Blossom Cemetery immediately! Do not attempt to apprehend Lucy, OVER!_"  
Lucy picked up the receiver and provided a poor impression of a soldier.  
"Sir… she got away, sir. Killed quite a lot of us, sir. She's quite mad, sir… over. Sir."  
"_Goddamn it you little puke! I'm not going to have her cut my head off because of you!_"  
Lucy then cut her character.  
"Ohhhhh… I'm not going to cut your head off. I'm going to pull your tongue out through your ass, shove a gun up there and blow your damn eyeballs out. Over."  
"_I see. Very well, 'soldier', proceed. But I warn you about the company I'm still keeping over here. He'll be dead before my eyeballs hit the grass should you try anything. Over and out._"

After a few minutes she heard rushed footsteps to her rear and ducked into a shop door for safety, returning once satisfied it had passed. Her journey towards the hill was relatively trouble-free save a few stragglers that had neglected to react to Mariko's decoy, but the protection her procured gun afforded wouldn't last when the climb came, even if ammo wasn't too sparse. On reaching the foot of the hill she abandoned her rifle and began the difficult climb to her one true prize.

"_So he does have Kohta. That was somewhat rash, Kaede."_

---

Mariko wasn't thinking straight, to say the least. Even if her unsubtle tactic did work after a fashion this was a humiliation of a different kind. Her charges were laughing and joking behind her, checking ammunition and pulling latches on their guns out of sync. The least she'd done was provided Lucy enough time to get out of the way; this was the only reason she'd resorted to the desperate measure that killed Mariko in the first place...  
Truthfully she only tried it on impulse without caring about the reason or the effect. Hell, the previous night she may have used it on Lucy out of desperation if the need arose. But all things considered…  
"_That was kinda funny, if pointless. Not to mention embarrassing._"  
Mariko stopped her chair and turned to face the firing squad, ready and poised. She looked the troopers right in the eyes, straightened her blouse, tied her ribbons around the horns and said in a serious tone-  
"I'm ready."  
Hiromi ran down the hill full-pelt just in time to hear the gunfire, and arrived to see Mariko flat on her face.

Out of instinct Mariko turned away from the blazing rifles, hard enough to send her spinning out of her chair and onto the ground. Strangely, however, she didn't feel a single bullet enter her. For a reason that was now painfully obvious.  
"_Of all the… you worried over nothing, you stupid girl! NOW GET UP!!_"  
Mariko obliged the chiding remarks her mind bore. She faced her would-be executioners who had ceased their confident sneers and were hastily reloading their guns. Out of the corner of her eye Mariko spotted her mother standing in a state of shock, but she paid her no heed- she started pacing towards the troops and started to whisper a tune from her father's school sketchbook that Saito had sang to her when drunk on duty one Christmas. A tune she'd kept in her brain for such a noble cause as this-

"_Make his fight on the hill in the early day, constant chill deep inside…"  
_The guards aimed. "FIRE!" the command came.  
"_Shouting 'GUN' on they run through the endless grey, on they fight for they're right, yes! But who's to say?_"  
Triggers were pulled, and again hit nothing. Mariko, feet away, growled her song on-  
"_For a __hill__, men would __kill_ _why? They __do not know!__ Stiffened wounds test their pride…"  
_The terrified throng beheld the little girl closing her eyes, twenty-four tentacles swimming with menace from her back for all to see with horrifying clarity. She stopped her march directly before the front line of troops, craned her head backward and opened her eyes, pupils narrowed to pinheads.  
"_Men are five – still alive, through the raging glow; gone insane… from the pain… that they surely know._"  
She struck her vectors just as the squad made a swift, mortified exit southward towards the beach. The vectors dealt no physical damage whatsoever.  
Once alone, Mariko retracted her weapons as Hiromi approached her from behind. She turned to meet her mother with a smile on her face.

The smile was wiped off with the back of Hiromi's hand brought across with speed.  
"DON'T YOU EVER FRIGHTEN ME LIKE THAT AGAIN, YOU LITTLE BRAT! YOU COULD HAVE BEEN HURT!"  
"Mom… I'm dead."  
"That's not the point! Not only did you frighten me, you frightened your Daddy and no doubt frightened hundreds of real people who are now going to wonder why a bomb went off and nothing got destroyed! Not so goddamn smart now, are you? Huh? Huh?"  
Mariko bowed her head and twiddled her fingers. "… Sowwy, Mommy. Are you mad at me?"  
Hiromi picked her daughter up and hugged her. Mariko returned the hug with three pairs of vectors, with a strength that felt quite strange to her mother - but not unpleasant.  
"Naww, Mariko. Just don't do it again, even if you are just showing off." Hiromi smoothed Mariko's hair down and placed her down on the ground.  
"C'mon, honey, let's go home."

Mariko ran back to pick up her chair as her mother composed herself. Looking back down the road she saw the troopers gather at the beach, get their selves together and start marching back in their direction.  
"Mariko, stay out of sight for a minute. This could be important for Lucy."  
They both disappeared from view and waited for them to pass, and started to follow behind when a voice called out behind them-

"Excuse me, have you seen a girl with horns around here?"

---

Lucy was having a real struggle with the hill- She spent a large amount of time looking behind her to see if any more guards were actively seeking her out in spite of the Director's newest orders. Even standing still and upright was a challenge- in spite of her youth she'd never undertaken any proper physical exercise, and a few abortive housework tasks after 3 long years of inertia didn't bode well for her fitness in general.  
The wind began to pick up as the gradient of the hill began a worrying stretch below 30 degrees. In truth the hill was not as large as she'd been led to believe, but certainly enough to test her wits more than her average fight.

She stopped for a few moments and took in the panorama of a damaged town behind her- she could just about make out the tank she wrecked minutes previous, along with the central area she'd just fled and had a conversation with that mysterious voice. Lucy then made the biggest mistake possible at a height- she looked down at the ground below. It wasn't exactly a death drop, plus her vectors were still sturdy enough to break her fall if needed. Yet it was still unfamiliar (and not a little disconcerting) for Lucy to go to such physical extremes for the first time in her life. She took two vector grips into the side of the hill and began her ascent upward. Slowly – and with measured claws – she gained ground moments at a time, the wind chilling her neck and blowing her short hair on her face.  
Her slow climb was based around grabbing a certain length with her top vectors, then using her real arms to bring her body up inch by inch until she was confident enough to use her lower set to stabilise her, and possibly make the swift climb to the top with just the vectors. But thanks to the environment confidence wasn't on its way, just more fatigue on top of that endured from the prolonged gunfight. For a moment, she considered that the easy way would have spared her too much exertion, and that Kohta would have understood exactly why.

Understood, yes… Forgave?

"_That's why it's called the 'easy' way, you fool. It's not the right way._"  
Lucy resumed her climb, and eventually tried to claw her lower set of vectors into the hillside. Satisfied she wouldn't let go she pushed herself out from the now-vertical surface and made her way up the face, just feet away from the top. With a rush, however, she grabbed at the side too much and took a chunk of turf out. In a slight panic Lucy tried to grip harder with her other vector, with the same result. Wanting to stop this displacement before it got out of hand Lucy brought herself into the hill again.  
Unfortunately, her swipes at the earth had caused a large rock above to become dislodged and crater straight towards Lucy's face. With just milliseconds to spare she cut the rock in half and hugged the earth with her limbs. With her confidence damaged she then lowered herself down to a kinder gradient, faced the town to take a deep breath, and after a few short minutes turned back to resume her journey.

Learning from her mistakes she only used her vectors lightly to propel herself up to the summit of the hill. Wiping her brow, she turned back to get a more impressive vista of Kamakura. Lucy took a second to note that amongst the few good things she'd done in her life full of wretched horrors, she'd managed to come this far in order to rescue Khota. Her heart ached for him that much more now she was so close to him. The cemetery was but yards away in her mind, and with Kakuzawa being the one loose end to take care of…  
She slumped to her knees, pained. After all that, was she really in peak physical condition to deal with that man in a matter of seconds? Something sinister inside her mind raised some hurtful yet important questions-

"_Could you really despatch him in enough time before he got a shot off at you? If so, wouldn't he think he was better off shooting Kohta?_"  
"Stop it!" Lucy yelled. She was addressing a girl standing to the side that looked just like Lucy, naked and covered with bloodstained bandages. The _old_ Lucy.  
"_You stupid girl, you've never considered it. I'm not saying this because I want you to butcher people again, I'm really trying to help you. You've come all this way and the last hurdle to jump is rising like the majestic Fuji in the distance. All it'll take is one shot at either of you and it's curtains. Even with the vectors there's no way you'd sneak up on him like this._"  
"I… will not cut people again."  
"_How you kill them has no bearing on this. Did you think that what you were doing was 'clean'? You've just shot and blown up somewhere near 50 people in the last hour! It's not as if you've ended their lives with the minimum of suffering possible._"  
Lucy stared at her hands. Her tormentor was entirely correct.  
"_Hey, don't break down now. You're almost there, you just need a minute or two off… that's it, just slow down… ease down…"_ Old Lucy looked on as her true self started to lie down on the grass and rest her head on the side, teary-eyed…

"No! I must keep going!"

Lucy sprang to her feet a little too quickly- she slipped on the grass and fell backwards, rolling closer to the edge of the hill.  
"_NO!!!!!"_ her doppelganger cried as Lucy tumbled over the edge, falling a several feet and rolling back down towards the bottom before suddenly coming to a stop half-way down. She clutched the plate over her heart in pain and looked to the sky, cursing herself for not listening when the one cruel voice inside her mind was actually trying to help her. She quickly found out that the old ghoul inside was also right about her tiredness overcoming her. Trying to climb to her feet but failing she spotted something else in the sky- a woman's face.  
Lucy reached out to touch it but she disappeared along with the morning sunshine. She slumped back on the ground exhausted while the woman she beheld looked on, fearful.

Kisaragi - mustering as much concentration into her spirit as possible - carried Lucy back down to the foot of the hill and looked upon her. She saw a red stain inside her pink tee, and carefully peered her dress to the side to find a trickle of blood running from underneath the bandages over her chest.

"_Oh my… This could be trouble._"

**

* * *

NEXT**: When instinct conflicts with rational thought, the outcome doesn't bode well for either the person faced with the question nor any immediate witnesses. 


	21. Eyes on the prize

**DISCLAIMER: **I don't own these characters, and neither does Ken Bates, thank god.

Lucy's attempt at climbing Mount Paranoia succeeded at first, then she let old fears take that away from her. How will she deal with the latest crisis, and will she ever reach her beloved Kohta in time before Nana does something daft?

* * *

**CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE**

Lucy gently stirred in the king-size bed, her scarred body trying to adjust to the feel of the silken sheets. Trying to sleep off a grand banquet way beyond many a politician's pay she felt the sweat itch around her neck, especially around the crude copper necklace she was given to wear. She could hear nothing in the room but the low purr of the necklace's transponder in regular rhythm to her heartbeat, and for a second she wasn't sure that her heart was actually beating. No longer inhibited by that cumbersome metal plate she felt under her left breast and held a finger to the small scar under it to get a feel. The necklace still annoyed her but compared to everything else, it was worth it. At least she could still feel, period.  
"_Clever, isn't it?_" - she _knew_ that voice.  
"What, the collar? … yes, I suppose it is."  
"_That's a fairly recent breakthrough we've been keeping under our hat until we can get the patent registered. Indeed your 'five year' prognosis may very well be misplaced, my young girl. I'll keep explanations as simple as possible-You creatures can change the hardness of your vectors by manipulating the frequency at which they vibrate, therefore by logic if a third-party source can directly __fix__ that frequency it can make the vectors permanently sharp as the razors that shave my rock-hewn face or as hollow as the light that's shining on your gorgeous breasts right now._"

"In other words, this thing is disabling my vectors." Lucy responded, dodging the remark. "To tell you the truth I hadn't had the will to test it."  
"_Correct. And what's best about the affair is that should we be able to miniaturize them they can be injected directly into a Diclonius and activated within minutes. This means that we no longer need to steal children for research here, and we also won't need to euthanise scores of others. They can live normal human lives should they so desire_."  
"At the cost of their instincts, I assume?"  
"_No. At the cost of the will to carry them out, should they overcome rational thought. Perhaps we've learned more from Number Seven than we've credited her for._"  
"Is she..."  
"_Not yet. All I ask of you is that you uphold your end of the bargain and mother my child, and we will let Nana keep her life and her mobility. Need I remind you…_"  
"No, you need not" Lucy replied with guilt. "I'm the reason she needs her vectors to support herself."  
"_Very well… let's get started, shall we?_"

Director Kakuzawa took off his shirt and turned away from his prize momentarily to tend to an old gramophone on a table, putting on some inoffensive soul ballad at low volume. He snuffed the candles out at the same table, leaving the room in darkness spare the moonlight shining on the bed. He then spoke boldly-  
"_The moment of truth has arrived._"  
Lucy looked lower down at his body for one second, then back at his face.  
"_No, not __**that.**__ You still have your black sense of humour, I see. No, I mean __**this**__-"_  
He produced a key-fob from his pants and pressed on the plastic button. The transponder on Lucy's collar beeped five times in rapid succession, then shut off completely.  
"What is this?" She asked, confused.  
"_I'm not __telling__ you to keep your word, I'm __asking__ you. Deep down you're an honourable girl who looks after the few that treat you well, and I expect no less than such for a woman to teach our child._"

Discarding his under-garments he climbed into position above Lucy in bed, never more ready in his entire life. She placed her arms around his neck.  
"I won't disappoint you, _Kakuzawa-sama_. You'll be proud of my child… as you watch from the grave."  
Her vectors crossed over her body then flung outwards with lethal speed.

-

Kisaragi looked from above, scarlet-faced.  
Lucy swung wildly above, feverishly trying to claw her captor bloodily out of existence, and still-flailing she then opened her eyes.  
She was in Kamakura bay, mid-to-late morning, at the bottom of the hill she'd just climbed, being watched by a stern deity from above.  
"A dream… a goddamn dream! But… it was so real! He was going to… I feel sick… what are you looking at? Who are you? … … oh shitty death." Lucy held her palms to her eyeballs and groaned- "I whacked his fucking tea-lady."  
"_My name's Kisaragi. That's the __second__ time you've done that, and it hurt a lot more the first time. How do you feel?_"  
"You're the first victim who's come back to look me in the face and I don't know what to say" Lucy replied, embarassed.

She looked down at her chest to find that the plate was still there, more or less in the same position. More worryingly she noticed the stain underneath.  
"Curse you, Kaede. A friend of mine put that plate there and I was supposed to get that fixed instead of playing the heroine. Now he's dead and he's not here to see me like the misguided idiot I am, and I'm glad of it."  
"_Misguided?_"  
"I killed you for the wrong reason and I regret it, Kisaragi-san. I expected Doctor Kurama to save my sweet friend Aiko from dying, something too much for him, and I blamed him badly for it. I was so angry I felt that I had to kill everyone close to him to make him feel as alone as I was. I remember the day I made that oath now and it sickens me to think of how far I would have gone to keep it, now that I know that none of those close to his heart could ever have so much spite as I. Certainly not you."  
"_Are you so sure?_" Kisaragi boomed at her. Lucy stared at her victim in shock, fearing her scorn almost as much as Kohta's. She then felt Kisaragi's hand on her shoulder.

"_I don't hate you, I pity you. If you can't see that you've still got everything to fight for then you're a bigger idiot than me. I know your friend's at the top of that hill waiting for you to save him, and I know you're all beat up now but you can't afford to stop believing that you can do this, 'cause if you do then Director Kakuzawa's already won."_  
"But I don't know what to do… I might never be a better person if I carry on like this."  
"_I think you will be, I've just seen what's in your heart._"  
"That's why I'm scared, not because I don't think I can stop if I start cutting again, because if I do then he'll hate himself more than he may hate me for taking his family from him. I don't want him going to hell because of me."  
"_I see… I'm not asking you to murder, I'm asking you to believe in yourself. I graduated from Tokyo University and I never so much as managed to hold a coffee mug straight in my life. Hell, I managed to carry your fat ass down that hill there and all the time I was afraid my legs would go to jelly again and I'd drop you._"  
"So what do you suggest?"  
"_Get up that hill, or you'll have to take your chances._"

---

Inside the hour dozens of JSDF and Kakuzawa's sharpshooters had gathered by the foot of the graveyard, in rank and file facing away from the entrance. Moods were mixed in the camp- many were afraid of how the day may play out, others were indulging in good-natured banter about the bomb-that-wasn't in town and a small band of troopers were putting wagers on who would take Her out if the worst came to the worst. From a makeshift medical tent near the steps a soldier emerged in a neck-brace, dragging on his inhaler again. Walking past – and greeting – several of his fellows he made a tricky journey up the steps and into the yard itself en route to the Director. On reaching his destination he found his boss dragging on a cigar, watching over a dozing Kohta slumped by the foot of a headstone. He saluted Kakzuawa, who returned it and then shook Delta by the hand.  
"_Good to see you, soldier. I heard Seven gave you a rough time._"  
"My apologies, sir."  
"_No need. I guess you can only keep shoving that girl so much before she returns fire, huh?_"  
"It appears so, sir. Who might this young gentleman be, sir?"  
"_The object of Lucy's affection. I have orders for you, Solider Delta, if you feel up to the task._"  
"What are they, sir?"  
"_I believe it's Lucy's birthday soon enough, I must get her a present. I have a digital camera in my pocket. If this man does not awake inside 30 seconds, I want you to shove your member in his mouth and take a picture._"  
Kohta awoke with a start- he heard. The two laughed.

"_Soldier Delta, you may take 48 hours leave. Can you walk to the Hospital or will you need a taxi?_"  
"I think I can manage, sir. Thank you very much, sir."  
He saluted the Director, then departed from the scene with a brisk, confident walk.  
"What happened to him?" Kohta asked, yawning.  
"_Number Seven shoved him into the bath back at your house so hard he cracked his neck in two places. He's lucky to be alive._"  
Kohta smiled. "Are you sure?"

Delta explained to his immediate superiors about the leave granted, exchanged salutes and handshakes and started to walk south close to the edge of some scrub on the east side of the road, not 100-percent sure that Lucy wouldn't take that route if she was on a rampage. Unable to twist his head he elected to stop moving and rotate his body clockwise-and-counter to check out the view to see if it was safe to proceed in front. He didn't see anything in front of him, but a rustle in the bushes not far behind caught his attention. Performing an about-turn he rolled his eyes around the area to find the source, and he saw a tell-tale piece of bone sticking out between two large growths of jasmine. He took another puff from his reliever, then reached for his radio.  
The radio was snatched from his hands by an unseen force and shattered on the ground. His gun was cleft in two with alarming ease. Panicking, Delta started to mouth a yell but his throat was gripped underneath its brace from a good three metres behind the grass.

"Don't push your luck. On your way."

---

"So, what the hell was up with that bang? I can't see nothing destroyed." Bando asked.  
"Lucy was being held up having something to eat by a bunch of baddies, so I charged into them and set off the bombs inside me again, and I think she got away." Mariko recapped.  
"You've still got 'em, even though you got blown up last night?"  
"Yup. Pretty useless though, I might fire one off for New Year's."  
"Mariko, that's not a toy!" Hiromi scalded her, then took the cell-phone away and put it in her pocket. They looked around the place and saw people slowly coming outside to look at the (lack of) damage to the area and call their loved ones. Ambulance crews arrived to tend to the wounded Lucy left behind, fashionably arriving just after local news vans.  
"Ohhh boy, 6 o'clock is going to be a riot tonight", Bando remarked. "More importantly, we're not finished. Lucy's still around somewhere and I've gotta find her just to see how she's holding up."

"Mommy, I've got an idea" Mariko spoke up, then whispered into her mother's ear. Hiromi nodded, smiling. Mariko then reached out with two pairs of vectors, one grabbing Bando's shoulders and the other to his waist.  
"Just what do you think you're doing, you little…"  
Hiromi cut him off, getting the gist. "You can be the scout party."  
Bando, alarmed, was taken a good 34 feet in the air against his will, screaming- "I ain't good at heights, lemme down!"  
"Can you see Lucy from up there?" Hiromi shouted. Bando, desperately trying not to blaspheme in front of a woman and child he composed himself and looked around.  
"No, but I can make out a _lot_ of military up near what looks like a graveyard."  
"Where?"  
"About a mile North."  
"Go on ahead, see if she's there!" Hiromi replied.  
"What?" Bando yelled back, then Hiromi nodded at Mariko- "Sorry in advance, Mister!" she chortled, then wildly flung the hapless solider towards the yard. He flew rather fast uttering his two favourite swearwords in between screams, and landed flat on his head a good few yards before the pack.  
Getting to his feet and cradling his neck out of instinct he straightened himself up… and passed a soldier in a neck-brace running behind him in blind panic.  
Bando smiled, then licked his lips. Unsure of how to hide himself he kept to the walls on the west side of the road, slowly pacing north. After a little while he found the heavily-guarded entranceway. A head-count revealed a good 40+ troopers with rifles, two tanks and six motorbikes.  
"_What, us? Subtle?"_ Bando thought to himself, and started to turn back south. He was interrupted by a very slight snoring noise in the grass opposite. His attention diverted, he crossed the road carefully and centred on the jasmine bushes to find a pleasant surprise sound asleep, face down in the mud. He gave her a gentle nudge, and she woke up with a gasp-

"Papa! Pa… You! What's going on?"  
"A bunch of shit happened, I'm dead, Lucy's alive and now on your account I'm trying to help _two_ half-baked reunions. Listen up, you know you heard a loud-ass bang earlier?"  
"Yeah, what of it?"  
"Encore in about two minutes. Wait for 'em to leave, get in the yard and wait for Lucy. Fall asleep and you ain't waking up, ever."  
Bando dashed back down the road, leaving a sluggish Nana in his wake. On reaching the Kuramas again he stopped to compose himself, then approached Hiromi with his best puppy-dog eyes.

"Whoever you are, sir, please don't give me that look. It's a sign of impending bullshit."  
"The purple-haired stumpy kid needs help crossing the road up there. I need your daughter and your phone."  
"Where do ya want me?" Mariko asked before Hiromi could shape her mouth to say the letter N.  
"Hmm… best go behind one of the shops, if people see you in the same place they won't buy it."  
"Yes, sir!" she was already wheeling into position on the western road, but she stopped upon the body of a solider. Mariko yelled back- "Hey! I found a grenade, that'll give us some cover!"  
"Um…Good idea!" Bando uttered, exasperated. Hiromi held up the phone in submission, wanting as little part of this as possible.

"I'm going to need a word with my husband about that girl. She sure as hell didn't learn that logic from _me!_"  
"Don't knock it, with that mind she'd have made Major at the least!" Bando replied innocently, checking that the handset was working again. This time, the device was responsive. Fiddling with the controls to get the manual trigger, he called out again to Mariko.  
"Ready?"  
"Yeah!" the reply came.  
Bando looked around the area just to make trebly-sure that nobody would be caught up with the _genuine_ explosion caused by their 'cover story', especially around the building Mariko was hiding by.  
"OK BABY, ON FIVE, PULL THE PIN. ONE… TWO… THREE… FOUR…"

---

Nana waited an eternity inside the jasmine, the scent having a pleasant but unwanted calming effect on her brain. Papa's insult and beating sharpened an edge to her that the man-with-the-plan had instilled in her when she escaped, and as much as she wanted nothing more to blunt it she needed the opposite, to avoid drifting away. But then again if she did fall asleep and miss what could become a stale running-joke in the next life, perhaps Lucy would find her by accident and she'd wake up in her own bed the following day and get little more than a cuckolding and miss out on breakfast. Or she'd pass out and snore so loudly that come the explosion she'd wake up with a gun in her face… or somewhere worse.  
That notion was enough to stay her tiredness for just a little longer, and she changed mental focus onto Bando.  
"_Dear dead-guy, I hope you realise that there's a chance that Lucy is taking this route as well, and I hope your tone didn't infer that I hadn't really thought my plan through…"_  
**BANG**.  
"…_no point in finishing that sentence now. Yours, Nana."_

The pack sprang into action- mounting their bikes, piling into the pair of tanks and forming columns on a split-second notice, the sleeping dragon in front of the cemetery roared into life and flew south down the road with little prompt from Kakuzawa offered. Nana made out the words "You _fucking_ clowns!" from a radio somewhere inside the dust cloud, but it was too little and too late. After propping her eyelids open with vectors Nana counted the depleted few that had remained behind- a few troops injured from the fight at the beach around the medical tent and nobody else. With all thought of stealth abandoned Nana leaped like a gazelle from the bush, ran four-legged up the steps and into the bushes of the graveyard.  
Taking her time to scour the area, Nana slowly moved up behind headstones she recognized from her fight against Lucy a few weeks prior. She could almost taste it.

Kohta beheld Kakuzawa incandescent with rage, literally hopping mad and chewing at his expensive clothing.  
"_I see what this is, Lucy, you cunt… set something off in the south, circle in from the north and snatch my dream away from me, well that's what you think… goddamn bitch._" He stubbed out his cigar on the ground, loaded his magnum and addressed Kohta-  
"_Move one inch. I dare you._"  
Kakuzawa marched down the file Nana was hiding opposite and jumped down the steps next to the med-tent. He grabbed a soldier with his leg in splints and propped him in the middle of the road with his rifle.  
"_If so much as a dog starts sniffing down here, cap it! Come on you lazy fuckers, get moving, block the road facing north!_" He marched back up the steps without bothering to check if the infirm had complied with his ludicrous order.  
He arrived back at the yard to find Kohta gone. Face and eyes reddening by the second he discarded his jacket near Hiromi's grave and closed his eyes, mumbling to himself-  
"_Alright, fuck the plan. She's toast, he's toast, they're all goddamn toast. I'm going to shoot that whore in the neck and fuck her asshole while she's choking from the bullet, and she gets to die with spunk and shit in her eyes, yes oh yes oh yes…_"

"That's funny. Something about you told me you preferred Isaac Hayes._"_

He opened his eyes, and the prize stood next to Kohta a few feet in front.  
"Director Kakuzawa, I assume. We meet at last. You know it's awfully important for the parents of a new generation of Diclonii to start off on the right foot, so I'd just like to say I wouldn't do you if my species depended on it."  
"_You didn't seriously think that, did you? I merely wanted you because you'd been so much trouble to us, but now I've decided you're not worth hundreds of innocent lives anymore, so unless you use your vectors on me I'm going to kill both of you pricks and find somebody else._"  
"Kohta, we're going home."

She turned to move away and Kakuzawa aimed right at Lucy's heart, pulling the trigger. She yelled and collapsed a few metres behind Kohta in a heap. Kohta ran back to tend to her.  
"Kohta, I'm fine, just get outta here. I don't want you to see this."  
"_DON'T MOVE, YOU SHIT!_" Kakuzawa barked. "_That's it, isn't it? She can't bear you to see her murder again, like when she murdered your sister and your father in cold blood. So if she thinks that you're not there she can slice away_."  
"Don't listen to him, Kohta! I haven't used them since I left you last night!"  
"_Oh come on, boy, use your head. Why do you think she came through the back way? So that you didn't have to hear the tortured screams from the front of the cemetery! NOTHING has changed about her, boy_."  
Kohta looked at him and her over again, then slumped his head. Lucy burst out in tears.  
"_Fine!_" Kakuzawa yelled. "_If you won't make up your mind, I'll make up hers._"

He moved forward a few feet and aimed the gun at Kohta's head. Old Lucy's prediction proved itself correct.  
"_Kill me or he dies. You have until three._" He said. "_ONE…_"  
"I can't… I just can't." Lucy pained. "I made a promise to you."  
"_TWO…_"  
"I'm sorry, Kohta… I'm so sorry…."  
"_THREE_."  
Kakuzawa's finger caressed the trigger, pulling it back half a milimetre. His forearm was sliced clean off, and the limb fell forward onto the ground. Kakuzawa cried out and fell to his knees. Kohta gripped Lucy and clinged onto her as if death would strike if they parted.  
"I undertand, Lucy. I really do understand. You had to do it, you just.."  
"Kohta… He was out of my range."  
"Huh?"  
"I didn't do it, he's four metres away."

They looked upon Kakuzawa writhing on the floor, clutching his bloodied stump. They then saw the culprit floating behind him, and Kakuzawa followed their gaze over his shoulder.  
"_Mister Director, we meet at last._"

* * *

**NEXT:** Be careful, this road has two-way traffic. 


	22. The meaning of life

**DISCLAIMER: **I don't own these characters. This chapter features graphic descriptions of violence and gore.

It's all coming together at the cemetery with Kakuzawa's plans in tatters along with the remains of his right forearm. And Lucy had nothing to do with it.

* * *

******CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO**

Nana hadn't taken her eyes off the wounded Kakuzawa for over two minutes, not even to blink. Lucy knew of that look as she'd thrown that herself so many times- the look that betrays no emotion but shows deep inside she's enjoying every moment of what's going to happen. Now, Lucy feared that look.  
"Get Kohta home", Nana spoke in a low, emotionless tone- "The job's almost finished." Lucy declined the offer.  
Kakuzawa feverishly removed his tie and tied it around the bleeding stump clenching on one end with his teeth almost hard enough to shatter them. Pushing backwards towards a headstone he reached into his shirt pocket for another cigar, lit it with his lighter from the same pockets and stabbed at the wound. Just as he began to scream Nana placed a vector over his mouth to stifle his cries.  
"Nice try, but they're not coming to help you" she said. "But by all means I'll let you finish."  
Lucy and Kohta had to turn their heads but Nana stared, unflinching, as Kakuzawa repeatedly brought his cigar to cauterise the wound, charred flesh filling Nana's nose along with the smoke. Once done he wiped the blood off the lit end and began to smoke it.  
Nana stood back a little then looked at Lucy lying on the floor, bleeding steadily from the chest, otherwise conscious.  
"She needs an ambulance, Nana!" Kohta shouted out to her.  
"_There's a cellphone in my coat._" Kakuzawa called out. "_Not that it'll do you much good, I've put an alert out on her. As soon as she gets into Hospital we'll know she's there, and we'll kill her, and only I can rescind that order. So, Number Seven, you don't want to kill me yet._"  
His throat tensed under her vector and spat the cigar out, choking on the smoke. "My name is Nana", she spoke, "And I don't _want_ to kill you at all. If I knew you would never come looking for us, if you would gracefully accept that us… _vermin_ can become better than what we're told we are then I would let you walk away and move on with your life. But you will not, so your road ends here."

Kakuzawa started to laugh. "Do I amuse you?" Nana asked, angrily.  
"_**Diclonius** are not vermin. **You** are, you filthy __silpelit. You, your sister, and all those other helpless girls and boys we toy with in the name of science are little more than rats that propagate with little thought other than of instinctive survival and slaughter. **Lucy** is a far different creature. She is a pure Diclonius, she is pure magnificence. I want her to survive this so that the __true Diclonius race can spread and take their glorious place as rulers of the planet._"  
"So why am I here, if – according to you – I'm little more than a mistake?"  
"_It's not Lucy's true role to murder mankind. That, 'Nana', is your role. Silpelits exist to clear the road of anything interfering with the order of the world. Humans are your natural enemy, my little girl, because they do not operate in synchronicity with the rest of animal kind- they do not contribute to the environment other than to rape it and destroy it. You are given short lives to redress that, and once Lucy's kind comes to flourish __your kind will slowly die out like the dinosaurs._"

Nana was taken aback by this revelation. Maintaining her grip on his throat she staggered back and fell on the ground, her face wracked with terror. Kohta got up from Lucy's side and got into Kakuzawa's face-  
"What does any of that have to do with you wanting Lucy?"  
"_The answer to that is simple_." Kakuzawa said, removing his grey hairpiece to betray his true species. "_It's all about bloodline, you see._"  
Nana stared at Kakuzawa's stunted horns and began to laugh, shaking her head out of obviousness.  
"_See? Even the **rat** here understands where I'm coming from" Kakuzawa continued. "And I bet Kurama never got round to teaching her about the birds and the bees! Not that she'd have to learn, anway._"  
"What do you mean?" Lucy spoke up weakly.  
"_That's the funniest thing about the entire situation. She can't have children by herself. Ever. Nana here will never know how splendid it will be to cradle a child in her arms, to watch it grow, to raise it into a beautiful woman or a proud, strong man. Nana is doomed to infect people, to spread a sick disease that wrecks lives and creates rats to bear the damnation of mankind. No love for you, Nana. No love at all. So fulfill your destiny, Number Seven, and tear my throat out before the people that pity you._"

Nana stood up with her head bowed, and slightly tightened her grip to draw a trickle of blood.  
"If that were the plain and honest truth, I would oblige. But there are things that even you do not know about love, Mister Director. Love that can spring from a child who may never know her true mother, found only when she meets her father for the first time." Nana turned her head to look beyond Lucy towards the grave at the back.  
"Papa, are you there? Show yourself."  
Kensuke obliged, and walked towards Nana. Kakuzawa shrank backwards, panic-stricken at the spectre before him; but it acted passively, beckoning Kakuzawa to calm down. Kensuke playfully ruffled Nana's hair and turned to address the wounded director-  
"Hello, 'sir'. It's been a while. Did you know that Nana's an Aunt?"  
He shook his head. Nana looked confused, but Kensuke kneeled down and whispered into her ear- she smiled, the idea dawning on her. She addressed Kakuzawa-  
"You took my sister from me when I was a few months old. I believe you knew her as – what was it? – Number Three. Papa was 'infected' by her when I was small… You know where I'm going with this?"  
Kakuzawa shot a thin smile. "_Aah yes… Mariko._"  
"That's right… I'm not going to lie to either of you, I've got a very low opinion of Mariko as a person. Trying to kill me twice yesterday didn't help matters. But I've good reason to think that Mariko's a lot more intelligent and mature than you give credit, her lunatic obsession with her bombs accepted…"

"_That was Mariko_?"  
"Yeah. You see the Doctor, here? Mariko's death wasn't exactly what you call a handicap. But I digress. What I'm trying to say was that If Mariko understood the true nature of how she was born into her nightmare she'd be more than mature enough to accept that (**shrugs**) she's got two Mamas, same as me I guess. And who knows? If Hiromi and my sister ever meet they might get on like a house on fire. But narrow minded cretins like you, Mister Director, are too wrapped up in your master-plans to attempt to find that out."  
"_Cretin? CRETIN!?!?!? THAT'S THE BEST INSULT YOU CAN COME UP WITH, YOU FUCKING WRETCH?!!?_" Kakuzawa was apoplectic, still straining under Nana's hand. Nana continued, infinitely happier-  
"I've changed my mind. I'm not going to kill you at all, that'd solve nothing. Instead, I'm going to show you."  
Nana then buried another vector in his pineal gland for a split second.  
"There. That's your _bloodline_ well and truly buggered."

Nana turned away from Kakuzawa, leaving a pained scream of absolute defeat in her wake. She raced towards Lucy to tend to her wound. Slicing her dress and T-shirt away she found the plate underneath the bandages had caved inward, the Magnum round doing the damage.  
"Kohta, get his cell-phone and get help now. We'll have to take the risk" Nana begged. Kohta fetched the phone and dialed 119, while Nana brushed Lucy's hair back from her face, all trace of hatred gone.  
"How are you doing?"  
"Surviving, I guess. I never knew you could be so spiteful."  
"Hey, I learned from a master. Who did this wound up?"  
"Bando, the solider they sent to kill me. We… fooled around a bit, but he got killed."  
"I know, he just helped me out with the last explosion."  
Lucy let out a smile of her own, before hearing a gun click from behind Nana. Kakuzawa had his Magnum aimed directly at Nana's skull, the gun wobbling slightly in his left hand. Lucy looked over Nana's shoulder and reached inside her dress.

"_I may be doomed to fuck a woman and father another pest like you, but you won't live to interfere!_"  
Kakuzawa looked at Kensuke's shocked ghost with a sick sneer.  
"_Get ready, she'll be with you forever in a short while_." – he said, turning back towards Nana and touching the trigger...

---

Bando, Hiromi and Mariko were racing up the hill back towards the graveyard, Bando pushing Mariko's chair while Hiromi looking over her shoulder now-and-then, wondering when their latest ruse would wear off – certain that it wouldn't last even with the added 'insurance' of a proper explosion.  
"What now?" Mariko yelled.  
"It's down to Lucy and Nana. I hope they don't get killed, I'll never hear the last of it!"  
"What is it with you and Lucy?" she asked.  
"We… warmed to each other, ya might say. Not that I wanna get in the way, or anything."

Hiromi caught on to what Bando was insinuating- "There are slightly more _important_ matters right now! The army will be heading back here soon enough!"  
Whilst Bando was no Roger Bannister he was making significant headway on the graveyard even with the wheelchair, and Hiromi was struggling to keep up. Picking up on this Mariko grabbed hold of her mother with her vectors and carried her all the way up the hill. When reaching the graveyard, Bando went to pull Mariko up the steps but she got out of her chair, folded it up and slung over her shoulder, grabbing the sides and making her own way up. Bando was in disbelief.  
"You mean to say you coulda walked at any time?" he asked.  
"Not just any time, only when it's funny" Mariko replied. Hiromi agreed.  
The trio reached the top of the stairs just in time for the shot.

-

Nana screwed her eyes shut when the trigger was pulled. She hadn't counted on Kakuzawa's desperate attack, and to her shock everything hurtful thing he said started to sink. Was Bando right? Was there truly no place for her kind in this world, regardless of her breeding? And had her decision to defy her supposed calling cost a lot more than her life, regardless of whether or not she'd managed to rescue Kohta?  
She opened her eyes to find herself back in the same place weeks earlier, in her Papa's arms after her limbs were ripped apart by Lucy. This scene, often in her thoughts since, had an additional horror to it- blood running from a hole in her forehead down through her left eye, and her apologies for failing him reduced to incomprehensible brain-dead mumbles. But Kensuke's look remained the same… of true, understanding love. She gurgled a smile, more blood coming out and spilling down her dress.  
She turned over in his arms… to find Kakuzawa clawing and gasping for air, blood coming out of his throat in spurts and tides. She blinked three times and checked her forehead- she was unharmed from the shot. Looking back at Kakuzawa flailing around with his left hand grasping the wound, she wondered what the hell was going on for just a moment, before turning towards Lucy.

Lucy laid there, arm outstretched and lip quivering, with a smoking Colt in her hand.

Kohta cradled his love in his arms, resting her head on his forearm. Nana looked back at Kakuzawa, trying to get to his feet by leaning his elbows on a headstone. With this accomplished he leant his sliced right arm across his throat to stem the wound he pointed the gun at Nana again, but his hand failed him along with his legs. Flat on his stomach with viscera slowly coating most of their end of the graveyard, he led both of his arms out to claw at Nana, his knees bashing into the turf in order to move.  
Kensuke observed that Nana hadn't moved or even averted her gaze. No, she was hypnotized by this, cocking her head in shock.  
"For God's sake Nana, finish it. I beg you!" he cried out. "Not even he deserves such a death."  
She looked at him, then back at Kakuzawa, babbling in fear. The Diclonius grabbed hold of Nana's torso, pulling himself up to meet her eyes for a split second- "…… _Nana (**cough**), please_." his fetid breath uttered.  
Kakuzawa's head parted his neck, and the grip on her dress relented. Nana was on the scoreboard at last.

"I… I didn't….want…" she started to say, but the rest was lost in streams of tears. She rushed towards Kensuke and they met in an embrace that crossed every definition of life and death. Hiromi and Mariko joined them whilst Bando raced towards Lucy:  
"What happened?" He asked Kohta.  
"She got shot in the heart, something blocked the bullet… hey, don't I know you?"  
"Well… I hit you in the face with a rifle butt once. Sorry 'bout that." Bando looked at the caved-in plate. "Damn it, the plate I put there's totally fucked. She's gonna need an ambulance, stat."  
"I already called for one. Hope they get here before the army comes back."  
Lucy looked Bando in the eyes and shot him a crooked smile. "You took your damn time getting here!" she rasped, "I didn't need the bomb either, I came up the back way."  
Bando shrugged his shoulders. "That wasn't for you, that was for Nana… yeeeesh, did the chief get fragged or what!?!"

Nana gently sobbed into Kensuke's chest. "Papa… Please forgive me."  
"Nana?"  
"I failed you… You wanted me to be better than all the others… I took his life, I killed him."  
"You gave him mercy, Nana. More than he gave you, your sister or anybody else."  
"It isn't just that… I was mean to you back at the house. Getting hurt is nothing to me, but I never wanted to hurt anybody at all. I never want to be mean to anybody ever again, not even to Lucy. I've been thinking a lot of bad things lately about what I thought I'd have to do, and it makes me feel ill. Please, Papa, just say it, just once."  
Kensuke looked in her eyes, and beamed with pride- "Nana… I forgive you."  
Mariko circled the corpse with an unexpected look of shock on her face, stopping to prod Kakuzawa's head. It rolled straight towards her, the eyes staring blankly at hers and its tongue lolling out of its mouth. She bit on her fingernails and turned to run to Hiromi, squealing "Mommy… this is just like the bad dream I had. It's horrible, I never want to see it again".

Sirens approached from the east road, alerting the group. There was some considerable relief when the people rushing up the stairs turned out to be paramedic workers. Kohta directed them past the Director's body and towards Lucy. They placed a stretcher underneath, carefully carrying it over the body, then past Nana and down the steps. Kohta (and Bando) followed them down into the safety of the ambulance. Kohta spoke to one of the orderlies-  
"This may sound a bit much, but could you please stop the army from finding out about this."  
"We'll try", the crewman reassured him. "What's the wound?"  
A voice called out next to Kohta- "She'd had her heart operated on earlier today and sealed with a makeshift plate, but the plate got hit with another bullet. She needs a fixture over her ribcage until the bones heal themselves."  
"What the hell?"  
Bando revealed himself to the frightened nurse. "Just do it on the quiet and I'll leave you a ton in my will, OK?"  
"…. …. OK."  
"Lucy", Kohta asked, "What did you mean when you said that you and this guy 'fooled around'?"  
Lucy leaned forward to whisper in Kohta's ear. "If I survive… I'll show you."  
The ambulance left in haste, heading south past a very fed-up army marching disconsolately back towards the yard.

-

Hiromi hugged her husband and kissed him, stroking his hair. "We'd better get Nana out of here".  
Nana looked up at her, crestfallen. "Mama, I don't want to go home just yet… I need some time to think, I've had no sleep and I'm a mess. This hasn't been an easy day for any of us."  
Mariko looked more than a little embarrassed to hear her use the term 'Mama', and folded her arms.  
"Mariko, what's the matter?" Nana asked her. "We've been together for 5 minutes and you haven't tried to throttle me yet."  
"… I'm sorry, I'm just being silly" she replied. "I'm just jealous of you. You've got everything going for you and you're talking like you've thrown everything you've believed in out of the window just because the Director was going to kill you. I did something a lot worse and 'cause I didn't know better at the time it didn't get to me. And I've talked to my victim since and I know I can't do nothin' about it. You can, Nana. You can get on with things I can't do. Tell her, Mommy, tell her the stuff you told me."  
Hiromi blushed- "I'd rather not. If I told her half the stuff I did at Uni her brain would explode… Wait a second."  
"What?" Kensuke asked.  
"Did you mention 'victim', Mariko?"  
"Yeah, why?"

Hiromi looked towards the forest, and Kensuke's look joined hers. They saw a suspicious-looking apparition pacing towards the woods as quiet as a mouse, trying not to attract attention. The couple looked in each other's eyes and mischievous smiles broke out. Nana rolled her eyes and Mariko giggled, walking forward a little in Kakuzawa's direction.  
"I think two seconds won't hurt will it, Daddy?" she asked. He shook his head. "HEY!" he yelled out loud enough for the whole graveyard to hear. Kakuzawa broke out into a mad run into the woods with the parents in pursuit.  
Mariko looked at a flagging Nana, and said "We'd better go after them, I think the troops are here."  
"I've just cut his head off, and he's… … shit, I just can't think at all." Nana responded, not quite grasping the situation. "You go ahead, I've gotta pick my limbs up first."  
Nana swiftly departed north and onto the road in order to circle around back down to her cache while Mariko got back into her chair and followed her parents into the forest. Finally aware that the fuss had died down, most of the dead returned to the graveyard to observe the mess that was once Director Kakuzawa, some muttering in shock and others explaining the conversations they were eavesdropping on. None of their reactions, however, were matched by the looks on the faces of the first troops to arrive back at the scene to find their insane leader dead.

---

A short while later Nana returned to the graveyard, climbing over the wall as quiet as possible. She was surprised to find that most of the army had vanished, and that a minimum of guard detail was watching over a small tent down the aisle where she'd killed the Director. Nana kept low behind he headstones and tiptoed past, then back down into the trees. Walking through the woods she overhead a commotion on the other side, something slightly jubilant. She emerged to find a small gathering atop of the hill overlooking the bay- three women and a child in a wheelchair.  
She paced towards the congregation, recognizing Mariko and Hiromi. They were excitedly cheering and jumping up and down for some reason. Mariko heard the grass rustling behind her, turned around and smiled. "Hey, big sister! Looky looky!" she said.

Nana approached the edge of the hill, took one look and immediately went scarlet-faced. Below they witnessed two gentlemen, shirtless, fighting on the road below. The black-haired man rugby-tackled the bald man with horns, repeatedly punching him in the face time and again to the delight of the crowd. Nana overheard him shout "I've been waiting eight years for this!" and slumped to her knees in disbelief.  
"Is he going to be a while?" Nana asked, deadpan.  
"I don't know, all I heard Daddy say was 'Just one week, that's all I ask'."  
"… balls to this, I'm going home. I've had enough bullshit in 2 days to last me a lifetime. I'm going to have a bath, and I'll probably sleep for a day… and then I'm going to stuff my face." She turned to walk away, wanting nothing more to do with this mess. Mariko shouted back at her-  
"Nana! Nana, wait!"  
"What is it?"

Mariko approached her, humiliated. "I'm sorry for everything I've done to you."  
"It doesn't matter, Mariko, it really doesn't."  
"It does, damn it! I know the hurt I've put you through, and it still makes me feel bad."  
Nana shed a tear. "The hurt you put me through was nothing compared to what the Director did to me. But the hurt he put Papa through was even worse. He's entitled to smack the crap out of the Director, but I'm just sick of watching violence, I just want to feel warm and fuzzy right now- I need sleep, a bath, food… I need to see everybody again, Kohta, Yuka, Mayu… even Lucy. Ma… Hiromi, you know where I live, right?"  
"Yes", Hiromi responded.  
"Wanna come round in a few days? That is, when Papa's finished goofing off?"  
"… I'd love to."  
"Well… I'll be seeing you then."

Nana left the scene in a mixture of exhaustion, defeat and an odd sense of peace. Everything was over but in a way she was far from satisfied; neither by the kill nor by seeing her Papa taking years of pent-up misery out on Kakuzawa's spirit. Following the north road all the way around south she watched scores of emergency service vehicles parked at the foot of the steps."_At least somebody else knows what happened here_".  
She crossed back down the hill and through the grass field, returning home to the Inn after a good half-an-hour since leaving the fight behind. Stumbling in through the front door to find the clock shattered on the floor, she climbed over it to stagger into the bathroom, finding Yuka and Mayu curled up in the bathtub, still with Delta's blood inside it.  
"Right." She said to herself.

-

Yuka stirred, opening her eyes, to find that she and Mayu were lying down in the dining room. She shook Mayu a little to wake her up, wondering what was going on. She got up from the floor and walked out into the hallway to find the clock back on its mantle missing the glass door on it, and the wall opposite having orange residue on it. Walking towards the bathroom she noticed the lack of broken glass and the strange neatness that she couldn't remember seeing when she came back earlier. Rubbing her eyes she called out to Kohta, and got no reply. Opening the bathroom door she couldn't believe what she was seeing- Nana was floating sound asleep in the bath, limbless, with a cloth over her eyes.

Yuka looked inside the tub to find the blood gone. She felt the water to see that it was very warm, smiled, then left Nana to it.

* * *

******NEXT: **Unfinished business. 


	23. Fifteen Minutes

**DISCLAIMER:** I don't own any of the characters except for Delta. He's becoming a bit of a regular (pain in the derriere)… 

Having fled the scene of the crime in an ambulance, all that Kohta and Bando can do is pray that Lucy wouldn't be ratted out to the army. As if they were safe in any event….

**

* * *

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE**

Kohta stepped out from the hospital into the evening rain and leant by the entrance to get some fresh air. Nine hours earlier he'd brought Lucy in with a bullet wound, and in spite of reassurances that the authorities wouldn't find out he could never shake the feeling that this wouldn't end well regardless of whether or not Lucy survived. There was also the small matter of a tryst she'd apparently had with the dead man that followed them in the ambulance- just exactly what did she mean by 'fooled around', and could he really be that mad at her – for that, anyway – as he'd been living off the fringe benefits of Yuka's adoration this entire time?  
"Maybe I need the competition" he said under his breath, and opened a juice carton he'd bought from a vending machine.

Bando purposely floated through the wall next to the door to join him outside, still half-naked from that morning, sporting a shapely scar beside his right pectoral. Bando wiped his brow and spoke to Kohta. "I had to get outta there, man. They've got it in hand."  
"Too gross for you?"  
"No, I was listening to a tune when I was sewing her up earlier and they're playing the same damn thing in the theatre, it's too spooky."  
"What was it?"  
"_Luck be a Lady._"  
"Aww man, my Dad was nuts about that tune." Kohta chuckled. "On Saturdays he'd bring me and my sister Kanae to this bar in Yokohama after he'd get done working, drink 3 bottles of imported lager and just let it rip, most of the time it sounded good but now and then he'd either clear the bar or me and Kanae would hafta duck under a table 'cause people were throwing crap at him. Not long before I came here for the first time He bought me a Sinatra album so I could tell the difference. After Dad died I never played it again, but I've still got the disc somewhere I think."  
"What happened to your Dad?"  
"Lucy."  
"Huh?"  
"She killed both him and Kanae in a jealous fit when I was leaving to go home, I'd lied to her about the girl I'm living with now being a boy. I was only 9 or 10 at the time and I'd blocked it out of my mind until yesterday, and it's still barely sunk in."

Bando was genuinely stunned, and Kohta could tell he was too shocked to ask the magic question, so he merely took a drink and continued- "That screwed her up almost as much, I can tell. She'd remembered it all since it happened and I was too dumb to think but when I saw her attack the guards on the bridge just before you arrived it hit me like a shot. I told her that I'd never forgive her … (**slurp**) but I seriously don't know. I'd met this dorky little girl with cute horns in her head and she was so nice and sweet, we'd spent most of the summer together…(**slurp**) it was the time of my life, man, and I don't think I can renounce that."

"I hear ya." Bando responded. "She was out cold for a long time, and first thing when she woke up this morning she asked me to blow her brains out. It's still a lead weight on her conscience. But I… um… had to talk her out of it." Bando blushed.  
Kohta took another sip of his juice and felt the irresistible urge to press Bando on a certain subject- "So, did you two… … hmmm?"  
"… Not really. We had snipers pay us a visit and we were acting up to spot 'em."  
Kohta noticed the scar on his chest- "It didn't work, did it?"  
"It worked well enough to let her escape, put it like that. And she paid me back by setting my sorry ass on fire along with the gimp that put me to sleep. Alive or dead nobody wants to wake up and see blazing flames around 'em."  
Kohta held out the carton just for its own sake, and Bando pursed his lips to the straw and squeezed the carton. The juice passed right through and splashed on the ground behind him. Kohta looked and realised what had happened, apologising-

"I had a feeling that might happen. Sorry."  
"Meh, it's the thought that counts. Another thing I'll get used to. But there is one more thing I've gotta do, kid. I need to go away for a bit."  
"Where to?"  
"Sao Paulo, Brazil. I've got… family there. Better that they know sooner than later. Once Lucy's okay I'm gone."

---

"_Miss Yamaguchi… Miss Yamaguchi, can you hear me_?"  
"Uuuuhhh…. The room's spinning."  
"_Can you hear me?_"  
"Y…yes, I can hear you."  
"_We've attached a sturdy fixture over your ribs so that the bones can heal themselves, we guess about two to three months depending… do you regularly undertake strenuous physical activity?_"  
"Not intentionally."  
"_We suggest you avoid anything more tasking than light jogging for the time being, but we do ask that you spend the next five-six days in the hospital so that we can make sure the wound starts repairing._"  
"W…what time is it?"  
"_About 5:58pm._"  
"Is there any news about… about…"  
"_What happened at the cemetery? Was anyone you know involved?_"  
"… … naah, I'm just curious. Sounds like an awful lot happened today."  
"_The news is on TV in a minute, I'll switch it on for you."_

The nurse – unaware of the reason Lucy was in there in the first place – turned the set on in the corner of the room while Lucy strained to sit herself up to watch it. The nurse departed the room for the time being, and Lucy squinted her eyes to focus on the small picture while wincing, still coming round from the general anaesthetic provided. She was curious as to how she was being treated so well by people who would probably have reported her had they known.  
Feeling the top of her head she found an answer- her broken horns were hidden underneath her hairline. She smoothed her hair back over and regarded the television set upon hearing the cheesy KAMA-1 jingle.

---

"_Well, I'm glad I could amuse you in my humble way_" Kakuzawa addressed Kensuke Kurama from the sand. "_Not even 24 hours dead and you cherish your afterlife by shutting the stable door on my face way after the horse bolted. That must make your family __**real**__ proud, mustn't it?_"  
"Yes, very!" Came a cheerful cry from Mariko- watching with her mother, Saito and Kisaragi from the sea wall.  
"_Who fucking asked __you_?" Kakuzawa replied. Kensuke kicked him square in the skull- "Mind your language in front of my kid. Hold him up, Mariko."  
The child plucked Kakuzawa from the beach and held him in front of her father by his arms and legs, drumming the fingers of a fifth vector on his head. The Director was physically unharmed from any contact, but chose to bear the brunt of Kensuke's rage for little reason other than to get it out of the way.  
"You're right of course, Iori. Nothing would have given me a greater kick than to pummel you for 8 hours to get a real result. But to tell you the truth, watching Lucy and Nana get that result in less than a minute worked wonders. My only regret is that I wasn't alive to take a picture and show it to half the kids locked up in the facility, it would have done wonders for their rehab."  
"_Rehab? Fucking REHAB? What makes you think that any of those_..."  
"You only caught Nana on a bad day, haha."  
"_NO SHIT_."  
"She's become ten times the girl you wanted dead since I let her go, and I think she'll find a role in life where she can help as many people of whatever species as possible."

Kakuzawa let out a deep breath and continued the argument- "_That doesn't change a thing. Those creatures are born to murder, and not all of them will suck it up if you scratch behind their ears and feed 'em biscuits._"  
"It's a start." Kensuke replied. Kakuzawa appeared to concede the point, looking away from him withdrawn.  
"_If you're finished with me, 'sir', would you mind if I took my leave to find my trusty aide Shirakawa?_"  
"What makes you think she doesn't hate you like I do?"  
"_She stayed loyal to me until her death. I couldn't ask for more_."  
Kensuke was surprised. "She got killed yesterday? I didn't see her… … She's from Okinawa, isn't she? You might have a long walk."  
"_If it meant never looking at you again…"  
_"Get him outta my sight, Mariko."

Obliging, she hammer-tossed the Director out of the way. Kensuke climbed up wall, aided by Mariko, and was handed his shirt and coat by Hiromi. "Right then", Kensuke started. "That man's got me breathing fire through my nose, so what's next?"  
"Well, we're invited over to Nana's place in a few days time for whatever merriment we can get up to" Hiromi replied.  
"And in the mean time?"  
She merely fluttered her eyelids at him, and Mariko caught the intention. She merely asked if it was OK if she went to the Hospital to check on Lucy, and left the lovebirds alone. Kisaragi and Saito said their goodbyes and walked back towards the cemetery, wishing them a happy eternity.

---

"You silly girl, what did you think was going to happen? You were in there for three hours and you didn't think to check…" Yuka asked Nana while lying her on a futon.  
"Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh-CHOOOOO!" she replied. "It was just impulse, Mommy. I just wanted to get it all out of my mind."  
Yuka gave her a mother's look. "Honestly, you had me so scared running off like that, and I wake up to find you in the bath of all places… what's going on, where is everybody?"  
Nana blew her nose on a vector, to which Yuka rebuked her and handed some tissues. "Well?"  
"Kohta and Lucy got away, they're at the Hospital. Lucy got shot in the heart but something stopped the bullet. The Director… got killed."  
"What? What happened?"  
"Lucy shot him in the throat and…" Nana turned her head away and her voice started to quiver. "I put him out of his misery."  
Yuka, not quite comprehending, shook her head – "Now now, don't say that. You.. you're in a fever, you've got a cold.."  
"I _mean it, _Mommy. He was grabbing at me and he asked me to do it, so I did it. I never wanted to do it in my life, but I couldn't look at him suffer any more. He was covered in blood, he was choking, he was crying and I couldn't bear to see that, not even him, not even for what he did to me and Papa."

Yuka broke down into tears, picking Nana up into her arms. "This isn't fair on you. You shouldn't be going through this at all. I don't even know how old you are."  
"Six, nearly seven."  
"That makes it even worse" Yuka replied, blowing her nose on a tissue. "It's one thing for me to find out that inside Nyu there's someone responsible for mass murder, but you're a good girl and you've been forced into suffering and watching other people suffer. It… I just don't know how you do it."  
"Because it's my nature" Nana replied, finding something inside. "Aside the last day and when I lost my arms and legs I've been having the time of my life since I was let out. I know I'm dumb and I know nothing of how to live like a real person but I'm excited about what I think I might do. As soon as we're all together again we can put this behind us and enjoy life even if the army won't let up. Now, Mommy, I want you to stop crying this instant and get me a warm drink."  
Yuka saluted, adding a cheeky "Yes, sir!" and left the room to fix the drink. Mayu entered the room not long after and hugged her.

"Heeeyyyyy Nana, how are ya doin?"  
"I've been better, I've been worse."  
"I see you've done some tidying. You're kinda getting' good at it, haha. Where's Daddy and Nyu?"  
"They're at the Hospital right now, I might go and visit if I can keep outta sight… What time is it?"  
"About quarter-past two."

---

Mariko was on her own for the first time since her dark days back at the facility. She took the opportunity to gently travel along the evening streets, looking at the bustle returning to the town after the emergency settled. She looked at a giant smouldering hulk of an object somewhere along the road, and traced the pathway it had taken through her mind- bouncing off the road just in front of the junction leading towards the shopping district, smashing through a couple of shorefront restaurants and coming to rest just before the road turned left a good half-a-mile up the road.

As Mariko was about to make a guess as to how Lucy found the time to pull the throw off her vision was obscured- she panicked for a second, shaking her head left-to-right, unable to see anything. Suddenly a large object pulled in front of her- a car, turning left up the street just before the police barrier that sealed the road off ahead.  
Mariko stared at her hands and remembered the first words her mother said to her- "_You fell asleep in the middle of the road, you could have been…_"  
Her head slumped forward. The car served as a brutal reminder- not just that she was dead, but if she hadn't been paying attention to her surroundings she could have been killed just as easily. No shredding, no terror, just a bump followed by a crack and then darkness.  
"_I best stick to the sides_" she thought, and then carried on up through town.

She passed (and passed through) dozens of people of all kinds on the way, causally enjoying the rest of their weekends. Ordinary men, women and children oblivious to her presence if not to what happened that morning. As Mariko continued her journey she became a little unsettled, if not jealous- especially every time she saw children of her own age with their parents laughing, cheering and singing with abandon. Mariko knew that she wasn't born into that sort of life and she felt it weigh on her every second that passed, and she mentally put her own face on each child she saw in a vain attempt to see what could have been. Stopping to control herself she saw something that upset her a great deal- a grown woman with peach-coloured hair just like hers folding a brand new dress into a shopping bag with her boyfriend watching on, approvingly.

Mariko began to cry. "_Mommy's right. I wasn't given the chance to be her. It's not fair._"  
Resuming her journey to find the Hospital she chanced upon a gathering of youths outside an electrical store, looking upon a TV and causing a fair commotion. Mariko turned in their direction to find out what they were watching-

"_**TONIGHT ON KAMA-1 NEWS: Head of prominent research institute found murdered! Possible link to beach assault! Eyewitness statements speculate on possible culprit! Exclusive pictures of suspect!  
**__Good evening, I am Chiaki Yamakawa. In the wake of the pitched battle involving armed forces representing both the public and private corporations, the head of the Diclonius Research Institute of Kamakura, Doctor Iori Kakuzawa, was found brutally murdered in a local graveyard. He was 65. The reason he was there is currently unknown, but there is a strong rumour that he may have been linked to the battle on the shoreline this morning, and also the military exercise yesterday which resulted in numerous military casualties. Eyewitnesses to today's conflict report sketchy details of the person responsible but KAMA-1 news crews have exclusive pictures of the woman who may be responsible at least for the fight, and possibly Dr. Kakuzawa's killing… _"

Mariko looked on as the pictures rolled on, shocked. Lucy had just gotten her fifteen minutes. Without wasting another second she frantically pushed herself away northward, not caring who or what she flew through. If there was a chance that she could help even now she'd take it, and perhaps somehow she'd be safe knowing that she'd actually done something worthwhile. It didn't take too long to find the Hospital as the signs were well-marked, and she approached the foot of the steps with baited breath…

---

"What the hell do you mean, a clear shot?" Kohta asked Lucy, flabbergasted. She was standing outside in front of him, wrapped up in her bed-sheet, visibly worried.  
"They had a reporter on the scene during the fight I had down near the beach, he got my face on the camera clear as day. The report didn't mention that I'd been taken from the graveyard but it isn't going to take much to put it together now, is it? I can't come home for a few days at any rate, that's the first place they'd look"  
"You're still injured, you need to stay here. They won't turn you in."  
"They won't have to, there's a solider being treated here for neck damage – I overheard that he came from the graveyard. He hasn't seen me…"  
"But he's seen Nana. She gave him the neck damage."  
Lucy punched at the brick wall with a vector, frustrated. "How much money do you have, Kohta?"  
"Not enough for a hotel."  
"Relatives? Friends?"  
He shook his head helplessly. "I can't help, you torched the only place I had" Bando added.  
"They mentioned that as well – _Military fugitive dies in arson attack_. So there's no chance of me roughing it out near the scene."  
Bando hit a brainwave- "What about the Doctor? He only died yesterday, did he live in the town or on the island?"  
"Good idea, but where is he right now?"  
Bando shook his head. Suddenly, they heard a familiar wheeling noise approaching from the bottom of the steps. "I have never been so glad to hear that", Lucy piped up.

She rushed down the staircase and kneeled down in front of Mariko, tears in her eyes. "Are you OK?" the girl asked.  
"Yes, thank you, I'm fine. I need a big favour from your Dad. I've been spotted by the media and the army is going to imply that I killed the Director sooner or later. Does he have a place I can stay for a couple of days?"  
"I dunno, you'd have to ask him. Mommy and Daddy are… heh… well…"  
"That's OK, I can't afford to rush. Take me to him, please."  
"_**DON'T MOVE!**_"

Lucy looked behind her to see a solider wearing a neck-brace at the top of the steps, pointing a shotgun at her whilst grabbing Kohta roughly by the collar.

**

* * *

NEXT: All good things must come to an end. **


	24. Sweet goodbyes

**DISCLAIMER: **I don't own any of the characters (who are copyright of Genco) except Delta. This chapter contains some angst and extreme fluff. There are also some lines taken straight from the English dub of the anime series, and those are copyright of ADV Films.

Lucy, once again, finds herself staring down the point of a gun held by a persistent enemy. And, once again, she's not sure what to do as this time it's not just her life on the line…

* * *

**CHAPTER TWENTY – FOUR : SUNDAY**

Delta stood atop the steps grabbing Kohta by his shirt, aiming a shotgun at Lucy's head with his finger primed on the trigger.  
"_It seems my boss underestimated you, and it's cost him. I really couldn't give a rat's ass whether or not you go down for it but at least I'm going to show you a little respect and not bullshit you. All I wanna know is where that little runt is_" he said, referring to Nana.  
Lucy smirked back at him. "You'll feel your death only if she wants you to, she's that quick. All you know is what you've been told about us. If you were a foot closer we wouldn't be talking."  
"_How lucky I am that I'm not. But I can tell from how you're standing that even from here a shotgun blast would be enough to bag a rabbit your size, you'd have charged me by now if it wasn't the case. Again, where is she_?"

Silence greeted his request. Delta responded by bringing the butt of his shotgun into Kohta's face, lacerating him just above his right eye, and brought the gun back to bear. Instinctively Lucy slashed a vector up at him, merely clipping some metal from the gun's barrel.  
"_You shouldn't have said anything about your reach_" Delta grinned, aiming the gun at her right leg and pulling the trigger. Lucy jumped backward just in time for the shell to bounce off the ground just to her right.  
"_Lucky escape, bitch. Now, what's the betting that I can leap forward and fire before you have the chance to spear me with your weapons? You're good, but you ain't __**that**__ good._"  
Lucy looked away. It simply wasn't worth the risk. Mariko cussed herself as her superior vector range was offset by the fact her vectors were only useful against the dead. Delta took position directly behind Kohta, resting the gun behind his skull.  
"_I can make it easy on you and your boy here, if you like. Just tell me where Number Seven is and I'll leave you alone. You've got 10 seconds or I'll take his head off first._"

Bando watched, unsure of when (and indeed _how_) he could interject. Even with the neck trouble Delta was a fairly large man, about 6'7" and – guessing – 270lbs, and even with Bando's proficiency with hand-to-hand combat his current ethereal status gave him serious doubt about his effectiveness in helping Lucy and Kohta escape. Suddenly Bando picked up a faint whisper in his left ear… and smiled.

"Where is she… where is little Nana… why, my dear fellow, she's right behind you."  
"_Not funny, Lady. One more chance._"  
That would have been more than what was offered to Delta. The shotgun suddenly flipped around and pointed directly at Delta's face for a moment. He froze and his life didn't flash before his eyes as he was too scared to think. The gun faced his crown… and in a split second the butt of the gun came head-over-tail and buried itself atop of Delta's skull. He fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes.  
"Evening, Lu – ACHOO - Lucy, how's tricks?" the cry came from behind him. Wiping her nose on her shoulder-sleeve Nana forced Delta onto his knees and twisted him around like a _marionette,_ deftlyslicing his neck brace open and providing a surrogate hold with a vector.

"You're getting to be a real pain, you know that? The times I spared your life and this is how you _repay_ me? Sticking your gun in my friend's face?" she spoke to Delta with confidence, tapping her foot impatiently.  
"_Pain? You don't even know the meaning of the word._"  
"I'd run down the list of pains I've had but I've got a stinking cold and I haven't had my dinner yet. So I'll make do with telling you what I think pain is."  
She grabbed his left hand and extended his pinky finger, twisting it gently side-to-side.  
"Shall I break it to the left or right?"  
"_Neither! Please, please let me go!_"  
"As you wish." Nana took another vector and flipped his entire fingernail clean off. Delta shrieked and held his hand to his coat, wailing on the ground. Lucy grinned, impressed. Nana picked him back up again and got right into his face.

"Right, let's stop pissing about. My friend has a problem- her face is all over the place at the minute and she needs somewhere to stay for a few days. Would you be so kind as to accommodate her?"  
"_N...no… p...please..._"  
"NO, you say?"  
"_My family will be implicated as an accessory. My kid's just gotten to college and my wife is pregnant with twins._"  
"You're not much good to me alive are you, Delta?" Nana replied darkly, grabbing his left thumb.  
"_I'm serious! You can check the registry if you like, Kazuo Yubari, Sixteen years old, blonde-dyed hair, studies French and English Literature. Please don't bring him into this, he doesn't deserve it._"  
"Hmmph." Nana remarked, then looked at Kohta and Bando. She inched towards his face. "Discharge yourself. Now. And do _not_ say a single word or your boy'll take up physiotherapy on his own legs."

Nana relented her grip and Delta dashed inside, panicking. Grabbing her limbs from behind the bushes she entered by she picked up the shotgun and handed it to Kohta.  
"We'll need that on the walk home. Lucy, you shouldn't have any more trouble here. Let's – ACHOO – get you inside before I give you a present you don't want."  
Mariko tugged at Lucy's clothes. "Are you gonna be alright?"  
"Yeah, I hope. Take care of yourself and we'll be seeing each other again before long. Oh, and tell your Dad I'd like to speak to him about something important."  
"I'll try and catch him when they're taking a break… God, I'm embarrassed."  
Kohta looked at Lucy, puzzled. She looked right back at him and he saw exactly what Mariko meant.  
Mariko waved them adieu and wheeled away as they walked up to the entrance, letting a thoroughly miserable Delta pass her, cursing indiscriminately while slouching off. She felt hopeful for the first time since she'd seen her Mommy that morning.

"Looks like Kurama's wife forgave him in the end" Kohta remarked, smiling. Lucy dared not utter a response. She hid the shotgun in her blanket and walked in first, demanding the attention of the nurses stationed to Kohta's split-open eye. They asked that Nana remained in the waiting room for the time being on account of her cold, and Kohta gave her what change he had on him for some coffee and some decongestants. When they eventually reached Lucy's room she climbed into the bed and Kohta sat beside her. Neither of them said anything but Kohta looked her in the eyes and smiled, grabbing her hand. She smiled back and they embraced with a long kiss far less painful than the one they shared last night, a kiss she wouldn't let go this time. Bando looked a bit queasy all the same. When they finally broke off Bando got up to take his leave.

"Ok, this is where I leave you behind, you lucky woman." Bando said. "I'm going to make a long trip across the big, open ocean and I may not be back for some time. My kid needs to hear me say goodbye, and I might find some ladies I wouldn't feel embarrassed leching over. Depending on what way the sharks swim I could be forever."  
Kohta responded – "Why not just go to an airport and stow away on a flight?"  
Bando froze for a second, put his palm to his head and said to Lucy – "You oughta listen to him, he's got an ounce of brains in there."  
"Take care, Bando. I won't forget you saved me."  
"You too, _Psycho_. I won't forget you ruined me!" he laughed, leaving the room. Certain they were on their own, Lucy and Kohta returned to their romance for a while. She cried through joy, given the chance she turned up yesterday anew. She held him to her lips for an eternity, arms behind his neck whilst all fears and horrors melted away to be replaced by his face and only his face.

"Kohta?" She broke off the kiss, smoothing his head.  
"Mmmm?"  
"What if they come back?"  
"You'd better keep the gun; you're too far from the door. How long are you going to be, a week?"  
"If that. Go on, Kohta, before Nana gives me some company one way or another."

-

On the way back to the beach Mariko passed the woman with the same hair as her wearing the dress she'd bought, leading her boyfriend across the street to eat at the noodle shop she spotted Lucy at that morning.

"_Whatever she did that I didn't get the chance to do, she deserves the lot._" Mariko thought. She continued for a short while but was interrupted by a sound of screeching tires behind her, followed by a loud smash. Mariko slowly turned around, fearful, to find a car crashed into the noodle shop.  
Mariko moved forward towards the wreckage and found the woman unconscious near it, her boyfriend frantically trying to ventilate her and restart her heart. Mariko's eyes were caught by something just off to the side- the woman was standing there looking right at Mariko, tears streaming down her face as she mouthed the word "Why?" over and over again.  
Mariko waved with both hands and repeated "I didn't mean it" with the fear of god in her, but the ghost vanished. She looked back at the wreck and saw the woman coughing and spluttering, her man holding her up by the head. She nodded to say that she was okay, and he carried her towards Mariko when suddenly the car exploded. She stood up, looked behind her as if to see Mariko, then towards her lover. She hugged him.

"What happened?" A voice called behind Mariko. Kensuke approached the chair and caught the expression on her face.  
"… A lucky escape, Daddy."

-

Kohta returned to the waiting room to pick up Nana, who was watching the tail-end of the news broadcast-  
"_We have just received word from accredited sources that the suspect involved in the assault on the shorefront area today goes by the name of Mitsumi Anjoh, believed to be a freelance terrorist with links to several mid-key Yakuza and Islamic fundamentalist operations in recent times. Police and army are refusing to rule out a possible connection to the assassination of Dr. Kakuzawa, and all major roads out of the Bay are being blocked by authorities. After yesterday's incident on the service bridges one-way traffic is now back in operation…_"  
"Looks like the army is saying 'screw it' as well", Nana quipped as they left the room. "Just as well, this coffee's awful."

Some time later they strolled up the steps back at the Inn, stopping to admire the clear night when opening the front door. Wanta charged at Nana, frantically leaping at her face wagging his tail. Kohta was surprised to find the main door was closed but still unlocked after all this time. He stepped inside to hear loud noises from the dining room, and approached.  
He found Yuka and Mayu huddled together under a duvet, sneezing their heads off.

"And where the hell have _you_ been, Kohta? AAAAAAAhhhhhhhhhhhh-CHOOO! Close the door, would ya? Where's Lucy?"

**THURSDAY**

Lucy left the Hospital early that morning, taking in a good noseful of the dew. Stretching a little she looked inside her well-worn and ill-smelling black dress to observe the good job the doctors had done in stitching her up. Suddenly from behind a middle-aged doctor approached her and engaged her in conversation-  
"_Like I say, we'll need to talk to you in about 10 days to remove the sutures, and come mid-to-late September we can get the plate out as your ribs will be healed by then._"  
"Thank you very much" Lucy responded gladly.  
"_Now, about something more delicate…_"  
"Yes?"  
"_I noticed that when you came in you had two broken protrusions in your skull, and they appear to be growing back..._"  
Lucy was too scared to respond, and the doctor put two and two together immediately. He handed her some Yen coins.  
"_I won't say a word out of confidentiality, even if the army does want to blow this off. Here's a couple of thousand, the least you might do is buy a hat._"  
"… again, thank you."

Lucy swiftly departed into town, learning –amongst other things– that it's best to take any help she can get for the time being.

---

The family of Kohta, Yuka, Nana and Mayu sat down for breakfast as normal, thanking each other as they'd all helped in no small part to cook it. Nana took one taste of the Soumen that Yuka had gone to a level of trouble to cook, and appreciatively dived straight into it with a token "Yummy!"  
"Hehe, that's right! This is your first time eating Soumen Noodles!" Yuka replied.  
"Oh yeah, I couldn't be here last time you served them!"

-

Lucy walked up the steep hill just behind the Inn wearing a lime green beret that went totally against her tattered rags, perhaps looking forward more to what she would wear once she'd got out of her clothes and had a decent wash. On her thoughts were Kohta, meeting the family again and Dr. Kurama in that order, all of them happy to an extent. She stopped a brief moment to look around her for no particular reason other than to enjoy the vista but then she thought of Kurama again, notably what exactly she'd have to say to him when they next met. Going over several drafts in her mind she approached the steps leading to the Inn, stopped to think again… and turned around. Walking back down to where the hill looked highest she stopped again and looked upward to the heavens, then to the rear of the Inn.

-

Nana became overcame with the happiness she felt with her lot, and tears started forming around her eyes. Nana's thoughts raged onward about both Mariko – her sadness when meeting Papa for the first time and also when apologising for trying to kill her – and Lucy, both when she saved Nana's life from the scientist who threatened to shoot Nana before Lucy left for the first time, and also when Nana returned the favour that morning.  
"There are just so many wonderful things in this world… so many good things…"  
Yuka and Mayu stared on, mesmerised. "Nana?" Mayu asked.  
Nana snapped out of it- "Oh, I'm sorry! Lets eat!" she cheered up immediately and resumed her meal. Everybody else joined in when all of a sudden Wanta started barking outside by the door. Kohta excused himself and left the table.

No sooner than he'd departed Nana clutched her head in apparent pain, dropping her bowl on the table.  
"Nana, are you okay?" Yuka asked.  
"I…I'm alright, it's just…. just… huh?"  
Nana looked to her right out of the door opening out onto the rear garden. Yuka and Mayu's gazes followed.

-

Kohta walked through the hall and found the music box that had belonged to Lucy playing by itself, and he was confused as he hadn't started it up. Passing to the front entrance he found Wanta barking at a mysterious shape at the gate and put his shoes on to answer the door. Walking towards the gate he suddenly heard the carriage clock start to chime.  
"Huh… it's working" he exclaimed, and then opened the door.

"_You_!" A bespectacled woman addressed him in shock. "_You're the guy that found… the Professor…_"  
"That's right!" Kohta said, shocked. "You're Miss Arakawa! What are you doing here?"  
"_I'm representing the Institute that the Professor's father ran._"  
"Institute… aah. Dr. Kakuzawa."  
"_Um… yes. I believe I have the right address. Through a strange set of circumstances I appear to have been nominated as Dr. Kakuzawa's successor to the company until its shareholders hold an Extraordinary General Meeting in three days time, so I'm here in person to tell you – that as a matter of policy – we're dropping you from all enquiries pertaining to the disappearances of Experiments Lucy and Number Seven. We … um… won't be contacting you again. Oh! Can you do me one small favour?_"  
"… yes, I guess"  
"_I have a letter for the attention of Number Seven. On the record I have no idea whatsoever of her whereabouts, but… aww shit… make sure she gets this, 'kay?_" – she handed him an envelope.  
"Okay."  
"_Right… aah jeez, can you believe this shit? All this crap about shareholders, murders & army bullshit and on top of all that I've got lectures first thing tomorrow and I haven't had a goddamn shower in over a month… hehe… I guess I'll bump into you sometime, as Director or not!_"  
"I guess… bye…"

Arakawa swiftly left the scene, leaving Kohta with a neat looking envelope bearing the legend 'Nana' in a childish scrawl. He opened the envelope and removed the letter, finding that – in contrast – it was neatly typed, looking more-that-somewhat official. He read the first couple of lines and folded the letter up, returning it to the envelope.  
"Hmmm….." he remarked.  
He turned to go back to the house when he heard a certain voice from the hall-

"_That's all it was, one loose cog! Who'd have thought it…_"

He raced back inside without taking his shoes off and embraced Lucy again, tackling her to the floor. Before they had a chance to kiss again the rest of the family dived on top.  
"Hold her there, dammit! Don't let her get away!" Mayu shouted.  
"I can't feel my legs anymore!" Lucy shrieked.  
"Now we're even!!" Nana laughed, letting her right arm fall off and licking a vector-finger, proceeding to inch it closer and closer to Lucy's unsuspecting ear…  
"Eeeugggggh, that's revolting!! Let me up please!"  
Everybody climbed off poor Lucy and let her get to her feet. Her beret was skew-whiff over her face and the black dress Yuka kindly lent her was almost in tatters, barely holding her modesty together by a single string. Lucy exchanged hugs and kisses with each person in turn and apologised for both her absence and her current state.

"I need a wash" she smiled, and headed towards the bathroom. Kohta began to follow but was held back by a stern Yuka. Kohta, sheepish, protested his innocence while Nana gave him a knowing wink. Yuka then put her finger to his lips to silence him, put her arms around him and briefly kissed him on the lips.  
"That's for bringing her back, you idiot" She remarked, then joined Lucy in the bathroom. Kohta leaned against the wall in a daze, wondering how the heck this was going to work. Nana snapped him out of it-  
"Who was at the door, Daddy?"  
"You don't have to call me 'Daddy', Nana. It was somebody from the facility, it looks like they're dropping this as well for the minute, and they asked me to give you this letter." Kohta handed it to her and she began to read it, having some difficulty with the bigger words…

"'_Dear Nana, you have been named as a ben..eff..ish..ee.air.ee…'_"  
"beneficiary, Nana."  
"'_Named as a benef..iciary in the last will and test..a..ment of Dr. Kensuke Kurama…'_ … Kohta, what's this mean?"

* * *

**NEXT: **Oh… there's just one more thing. 


	25. Epilogue: We will be eight for dinner

**DISCLAIMER: **For the final time, I don't own the characters, Genco does.

And now… we dine.

* * *

**EPILOGUE**

Later at night the Kurama family visited the Inn as promised, and were made to feel very welcome as guests. Being led into the dining room by Kohta, Hiromi wondered aloud whether or not Kensuke had taken her to dinner here when they were still going out, confiscating Mariko's cellphone as a precaution, while Mayu and Yuka were busy helping Nana prepare her most ambitious meal yet- having almost mastered the sublime art of frying sausages for breakfast Nana dared to add a little bacon to the mix. To humour her Yuka handed Nana a pair of safety goggles she'd stolen from college that were so large she had to double the strap over her horns and ears, while Mayu started preparing the _proper _food-  
"Are we cooking for five or eight?" she asked.  
"Eight, Mayu. it doesn't matter if they're ghosts or real people, we should show some respect. And Wanta gets the leftovers. That goes double for you, Nana- you're supposed to grow upwards, not outwards" Yuka teased.  
"Where's Lucy?" Nana blew it off.  
"She's getting ready, I've got her some more clothes. She's nervous as hell."  
Nana looked upon Yuka, noticing that she was a little uneasy about something. She decided to drop the matter as more sausage fat caught alight.

Kohta and Kensuke were talking shop in the dining room about their shared experiences of Lucy while Hiromi spent most of the time enjoying the view from the garden with Mariko. Whilst Kohta endured graphic descriptions of how Lucy escaped from the facility the day before he found her washed ashore Kensuke reacted with both genuine horror – listening to Kohta's account of their childhood and the bloody result – and empathy alongside a new understanding of Lucy's attempts to rediscover her innocence as Nyu. For the large part Kohta didn't ask about Kensuke's own trials and he was glad of it. Kohta also explained the problem he now faced between loving Lucy as she is now and loving Yuka as the woman who was always there for him. The diplomatic response "Rather you than me!" didn't sit well, but it wasn't as if Kohta was complaining. He went to get up when Lucy entered the room.  
Kohta stood agape. Lucy wore a splendid red-wine dress hugging her figure perfectly, with her hair combed fine over her stunted horns. Hiromi and Kurama were rendered speechless while Kohta walked forward, taking her by the hands.  
"You look… great" was all he could say.

Before both of them could get lost in a sea of tears Nana and Mayu began to bring plates of food from the kitchen and onto the table. Composing herself Lucy took a seat beside Kohta while Yuka entered, childishly taking her own seat on Kohta's other side. He blushed while Kensuke and Hiromi could barely stifle laughter. All eight diners crowded around the table, saying thanks, and the live people got to eating whilst Mariko's parents' hearts ached to be able to taste the fine looking repast. That didn't stop Mariko from trying, however- gripping one of Nana's sausages she tried to bite part of the end off- after three attempts she succeeded, but was unable to chew as the end fell harmlessly onto the floor.

"Hey, don't spill… sorry." Nana remarked. "You can't eat, can you?"  
Mariko shook her head. "I've never had a proper meal, just stuff I couldn't tell apart in metal boxes. I can't even smell either. Thank you very much for the trouble though, it looks good."  
Nana smiled.  
A while later Lucy asked to be excused, and beckoned Kensuke out into the garden. At the same time Yuka asked Kohta's attention and they both left the table to go to the hallway, stopping when they were out of earshot of the dining room. Yuka's face looked a little red and she turned her head.  
"Yuka, what's wrong?"  
"She told me about what she did to Kanae."  
"… Oh."

"Is that all you've got to say, 'Oh'? She killed…"  
"I know what she did, Yuka!" Kohta became a little cross. "I also know what she's been through, what she's suffered. She's been tormented, lied to, chewed up and spat out and every time it's happened she's needed someone to be there for her, and without someone there'd be thousands of Kanaes and thousands of crying Kohtas not understanding why… I'm sorry, Yuka, I don't know why I'm mad at you… I also know that if it wasn't for Lucy we'd have neither Mayu nor Nana with us, and god knows what torments they've suffered as well… God, I don't know."  
"It's because you're a sucker for dames, right?"  
"Yeah, you may be right. It's probably Kanae that did that to me. I'm not sure what I should regret the most but Kanae could be standing over me listening and shaking her head over which one I choose. So that's why I'm not regretting anything right now. Lucy can't move on unless I forgive her and I can't move on either until I can do that."  
Yuka held his hand and looked him in the eyes, a smile coming through.  
"_You're either brave, crazy or both. I just want you to know that whether or not you'll be there for her, I'll be here for you_."  
They both returned to the table.

---

"You wanted to speak to me, Lucy?"  
"Yes, Doctor. I've got something I want to get off my mind as soon as possible. It's about what happened to Aiko."  
"Lucy…"  
"Don't. I need to say this… I was stupid for blaming you. You couldn't have done a thing for her, she got hit right in the back. Not counting soldiers, hundreds of people have died either for no reason at all or that one, stupid reason. You didn't need to have that on your mind and I was wrong to put it there. I'm also sorry for killing your coffee-lady."  
Kensuke put his hands on her shoulders.  
"I've had worse things on my mind, Lucy, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. You accept what you've done was wrong but you can't let that consume what you _want_ to do to put things right in your mind. I've seen you at your absolute lowest and that's a thousand years behind you, I can tell by looking. You've conquered everything that's haunted you _and_ survived to put it all to rest and start fresh. And look at what you have in return – an entire family of people crazier than you to show for it, Nana included. She picked a fight with me on Sunday, you know that?"  
Lucy chuckled.  
"I'm serious, I was whining about regretting everything I've ever done and she just punked me out right in front of Yuka. I got so hot at her for it but that's what it took to make me remember the good things she'd thought I'd done. Kohta just told me a bunch of things you did when you were that Nyu person…"  
"Actually, I don't remember too much about it."  
"I see… then it's about time you were reminded. I'll be a minute."

Kensuke strolled back into the house and whispered into Kohta, Yuka, Mayu and Nana in turn. When finished, he beckoned Hiromi and Mariko out into the garden.  
Lucy looked up to the stars and addressed Kisaragi – "Any time you want to settle with me, I'll find you. I still owe you that."  
"Lucy? Your family would like a quiet word." Hiromi said.

She turned around and approached the door… and was hit in the face with a salad. She was quite upset. Looking around the room she found Kohta, Yuka, Nana and Mayu all staring at her with stone stares.  
"Very well", Lucy said, cold as ice. Suddenly four bowls of food left the table and hovered over her head.  
"You have five seconds to confess, or Wanta's going to be a busy dog."  
Kohta put his hand up, guilty as sin. She thanked his revelation with a fried egg in his direction. Yuka started laughing at him and his ruined shirt.  
"Yuka, are you sure this fish is cooked? It's eating the rice!" Kohta grabbed the dish, and fish met her mush. Nana lost control, then lost sight under a few layers of bacon thrown by Lucy.  
"You're mean, I went to a lot of trouble to cook that!"  
"Serves you right for burning the sausages! Again!" Mayu piped up, and before she closed her mouth such an item found its way in there courtesy of Nana's hands.  
Things swiftly degenerated and within minutes the dining table was upended in the entranceway - with Kohta and Yuka ducked behind it - and Mayu and Nana lobbing noodles, cabbage, sushi and sausages. Lucy was happy to take no further part until Yuka tagged her nose with a wasabi-laced courgette.  
"YOU ROTTEN DEVIL!!!" Lucy yelled with nostrils aflame, and she grabbed the table and held it overhead. Kohta and Yuka were sitting ducks for the ensuing pasting by Nana and Mayu. Yuka made a tactical withdrawal to the kitchen and reached into the fridge.  
"RIGHT. For that transgression, you are all forfeiting dessert!" she yelled, gouging scoopfuls of ice cream from a huge tub….

The guests stood out in the garden in absolute shock.  
"They're loonies. Absolute loonies." Mariko made the obvious statement.  
"I..I only wanted to give Lucy her first happy memory as an adult, not cause Armageddon Brulée!" Kensuke defended himself weakly.  
Lucy emerged from the carnage covered in unidentifiable foodstuffs, her superb dress lost forever underneath.

"I owe you an apology, Dr. Kurama." She began. "I always took you for a cold, emotional, withdrawn sage of unimaginable torment. But you're really… quite childish, aren't you?"  
"I'm not sure I've grown up quite yet" Kensuke confessed, hands up.  
Lucy extended her hand, beaming- "I hope you never do."  
He returned the favour.

* * *

**THE END**

* * *

What can I say? it's been a blast writing this, and if you've made it all the way then _please_ review the whole thing, tell me your favourite and least-favourite bits, and any constructive comments/pandering/gushing love of the characters is welcome, with the possible exception of Kakuzawa ;) There is a follow-up one-shot entitled As Warm As The Grave available to read on too :D**  
**


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